Hogwarts The next chapter
by GunnerMathavan
Summary: Harry, Hermione and Ron have had their fun at Hogwarts and now it's time for a completely new story. A family of muggles of different ages all get the invitation to Hogwarts and experience the wizarding world. This is the next chapter.
1. Chapter 1: The beginning of a new era

CHAPTER ONE

A drop of rain landed on the tip of an eleven year old boy's nose. He twitched his nose until the raindrop slid off his nose and then wiped it until it was dry with the back of his hand a few times in a dog-like motion. However a slightly taller and skinnier boy of the same age standing next to him seemed to notice nothing and continued to stare at the face of the large clock-tower on the opposite side of the road through his rectangular-shaped spectacles.

"We'd better hurry and get inside before we get soaked," said the shorter of the two having finally dried his nose until another raindrop attacked his ear.

"Yeah let's go. The train leaves in five minutes" replied the other.

The two boys pulled their fairly large suitcases up the stairs and through the doors of Kings Cross Station.

"Manoj?"

"Hmm..?" replied the taller of the two as they rushed past the staircase that lead to platforms 5 and 6.

"Where the hell is platform nine and three-quarters?"

A woman in a suit overheard and shot him a look of bewilderment as she walked passed.

"No idea," said Manoj, looking around nervously.

"Excuse me young men but I couldn't help eavesdropping on your most exciting conversation," said a voice from behind them.

The two boys turned around to find a man who looked like he could be in his late thirties with black hair and a fringe which covered half of what appeared to be a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead followed by two teenage boys with similar untidy black hair and a young girl with ginger hair.

"We're on our way to platform nine and three-quarters right now. If you'd like to follow us we'll be more than happy to show you the way. It's Lily's first time too," explained the man with the lightning bolt-shaped scar as he gestured at the young ginger haired girl. A nervous smile broke across here face as her eyes met Manoj's but his companion was still looking at the friendly man as the six of them carried their suitcases down the staircase that led them to platform nine and platform ten.

"I'm Mathavan and this is my cousin, Manoj. Thank you very much, sir," He said.

"You're very welcome," replied the father of three as they walked past the second brick pillar between platforms nine and ten.

"Okay we've got two minutes now. You kids wouldn't want to miss the Hogwarts Express, believe me. All you have to do is run at the wall there."

The man gestured at the third brick pillar between platforms nine and ten.

"Albus and James, go first and show these two how it's done."

"Okay dad, bye" said his tallest son.

"See you at Christmas" said the other.

And without a seconds notice they charged at the wall between platform nine and ten and vanished through it. The man now holding the ginger girl's hand laughed at the stunned expressions on Mathavan's and Manoj's faces.

"Now you boys give it a go."

"O-Okay."

"On the count of three?" Manoj asked hopefully.

"On the count of three," Mathavan replied.

"One..."

"Two..."

"THREE!" and they charged at the wall but instead of the expected collision it was almost like walking through a brick portal on to a whole new platform with children hurrying on to the train being seen off by parents. Some of the adults were wearing oddly coloured robes which bemused Manoj and Mathavan.

"Look!"

Mathavan pointed at the sign above which read 'platform nine and three-quarters'.

"At least we've found the right place thanks to that man. We'd better jump on," advised Manoj.

"Let's go."

As soon as they stepped onto the train a sudden warm sensation grew inside of them. It seemed as if the Hogwarts Express gave the feeling of warmth and comfort to those inside it. Manoj looked from carriage to carriage, shortly followed by Mathavan, looking for an empty compartment but as they were two of the last to get on the train this task seemed almost impossible. They got a few odd looks from inside one of the compartments. A young boy with fine white hair of around the same age as them glared with a look of apparent disgust at their appearance. They moved on quickly and found a compartment which was empty but for a blonde haired girl and the lightning bolt-scarred man's daughter. They breathed a slight sigh of relief to see a familiar face. Manoj opened the door and Mathavan followed.

"Hi, sorry to bother you. Do you mind if we share this compartment with you? There aren't many..."

"Yeah, sure!" Lily injected excitedly.

"I don't know if you remember but I'm Lily and this is my cousin Stephanie."

"Hello Lily. Hello Stephanie," mumbled the boys in an untimely fashion.

"What are you're names again?"

"I'm Manoj and this is Mathavan."

"You two are both muggleborn right?" asked Stephanie.

"Umm..what's a muggleborn?" asked Mathavan exchanging nervous looks with Manoj.

Stephanie giggled at their worried looks.

"It's nothing to worry about. It just means you have non-magical parents. You're dressed as muggles."

"Muggles are people who are non-magical," she added as she noticed the two confused expressions remaining on their faces.

"Oh right. Yeah then we're muggleborns. Our parents were freaked when we got the visit."

"You got a visit? We just received a letter because our parents used to go to schools that teach magic. Who did you get a visit from?" asked Stephanie eagerly.

"Well I got a visit from the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid," explained Manoj.

"And I got visited from Professor Aberforth Dumbledore but I'm not exactly sure what it is he does.."

"Oh he teaches Care of Magical Creatures. So does Hagrid. They both get along with mum and dad so I've seen them quite a few times before. What was it like, seeing wizards for the first time?" asked Lily.

"It was weird. Seeing a guy as huge as Hagrid. He's not human is he?"

Lily shook her head.

"He's half human – half giant."

"That fits," said Manoj.

"What about Dumbledore, Mathavan? What was he like?" Stephanie asked.

"Well he came around when my parents were out of the house and he couldn't just explain that I was a wizard just to me. He was at the doorstep for an hour or so and I could tell he was getting impatient. He was kinda scary until my parents got home."

"Dad says he may not be the humblest of men but he's okay once you get to know him," explained Lily.

The four of them got along well. The school prefects were going in to compartments advising students to change into their school robes as their arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was immanent. Manoj and Mathavan left the compartment to find the food trolley while the girls changed into their robes and once the girls were ready the girls set out to find the guys and let them change at the compartment while they took over pigging out at the food trolley. A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately," as the girls returned to the compartment.

"I don't know if I want to be in Gryffindor," admitted Lily. "Both of my brothers are in Gryffindor and I barely put up with them at home."

"My dad said it's most likely I'll get put into Gryffindor because there isn't anyone in the family who hasn't been sorted into any other house," explained Stephanie.

"But my mum thinks I'm more like her than my dad and says I could be in Ravenclaw."

"How many houses are there?" asked Manoj just as the train came to a stop and arrived at its destination.

"There are four," answered Lily.

"Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin."

"I don't want to be in Slytherin. Apparantly dark wizards come out of Slytherin even though dad says one of the best headmasters of Hogwarts was in Slytherin."

"You don't want to be in Slytherin eh? It's a shame that," a snide voice came from just outside the compartment. The compartment door flew open and a boy with fine white hair stood at the doorway with two boys. He gazed slowly at them as if he were about to leap at his prey.

"So do you want to be in Slytherin then?" Mathavan asked the boy.

"I wasn't talking to you, mudblood," spat the boy.

Mathavan didn't know what 'mudblood' meant but knew it wasn't a replacement for 'buddy' as both Lily gasped in shock and Stephanie clasped her mouth whereas the two accompanying the white haired boy chuckled.

The boy laughed at the reactions of the girls.

"I can see that we're going to get along just fine. The name's Clement. Clement Yaxley. See you all at the sorting." And he left as quick as a fox.

"What's a mudblood?" Manoj asked turning to face the girls.

"It's an offensive word for someone who is muggleborn. Don't worry about it so much Mathavan," Stephanie replied patting him on the back as she saw the contemptuous look on Mathavan's face.

"It's not that which is worrying me. One of the guys was Kiri, a friend from my old school and he just laughed at me."

"Oh don't let those douche-bags get you down. We've got Hogwarts to look forward to!" shouted Lily enthusiastically.

"Yeah you're right Lily. Let's go."

"Firs'-years this way! Any more firs'-years? All righ' there Manarj?" bellowed a loud voice. Manoj looked up excitedly as he was the last one to step off the train. A very large man's bearded face was visible over a sea of hurrying children

"Hello Hagrid. How are you?"

"I'm a tad hungry now I come ter think o' it. If yeh'll step this way I'll guide yeh ter the boats though. Firs' years follow me!".

They followed Hagrid down a narrow path which lead to a large black lake which was visible at the end of the path. On the other side of the river a castle of many turrets and towers sat on top of a high mountain. Astonished and excited voices were now heard from the group of first-year students.

"Yep. Tha's Hogwarts. She's jus beau'iful, ain' she? Now if yer come forward, yeh'll need to get in ter these boats. No more'n four in a boat!" Hagrid called.

Manoj, Mathavan, Stephanie and Lily all sat in the same boat. Manoj looked around at the other boats and he saw that Clement Yaxley, the boy called Kiri, and two more boys all shared a boat. Clement saw that Manoj was looking in his direction and made a rude hand gesture at Manoj, who suddenly turned to face the Hogwarts castle again.

"Everyone get in all righ'? Okay then – FORWARD!"

They were carried across the black lake and along a dark tunnel which seemed to be taking them directly underneath the castle until they reached a harbour at ground-level where they got out of the boats.

"Everyone out? Righ' then. Follow me!"

Hagrid led the students up a grassy passageway which led up to the front doors of the castle. He raised a giant fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, grey-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood at the doorway.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

"Righ' yeh are, Professor McGonagall."

She pulled the door wide.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly. But before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses."

She then went on to explain how the sorting into houses worked and explained about the four houses and that the House Cup will be awarded to the house with the most points at the end of the year.

"Now the sorting is about to begin. Form a line and follow me," she told the first-years.

They left the chamber and walked through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. Mathavan and Manoj were dumbfounded. The many candles gave the hall a magnificent glow. The Great Hall consisted of four long tables which were already occupied by the rest of the school and at the front of the hall was a table which the teachers sat at. The ageing professor lead the first-year students between the two centre tables. Manoj, who strolled forward behind Mathavan and was followed by Lily with Stephanie behind her, looked up at the ceiling and yet there appeared to be no ceiling as he glared at the shining stars in the night sky despite it being surprisingly warm.

"Dad said the ceiling is bewitched to take the surroundings of outside of the castle," Lily whispered into Manoj's ear.

"That explains a lot," his reply was barely audible over his shoulder.

As Professor McGonagall came to a halt Manoj, who hadn't realised the line was stopping as he was still staring at the ceiling, stumbled into Mathavan and grabbed his shoulders to keep his balance. Giggles were heard from witnesses in the vicinity including Lily and Stephanie as Mathavan glanced around to see Manoj straighten his spectacles.

"Sorry."

Mathavan turned to the front and tip-toed to see what was going on. Professor McGonagall quietly placed a four-legged stool in front of the line of first-years and on top of the stool she positioned a very dirty old pointed wizard's hat which appeared to have a face. It opened it's mouth and began to sing. The hat's song lasted for a good three minutes but seemed to go on for an hour to Manoj and Mathavan. After the applause of the occupants of the Hall died down, Professor McGonagall stepped forward and faced the line of first-year students.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said.

"Abbott, Maria!"

A pink-faced girl with straight blonde hair stepped out of the line and walked excitedly up to the stool and put on the hat which covered her eyes and landed on the top of her nose. After a moment's pause -

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat and the table on the far right applauded. She skipped excitedly off to the Hufflepuff table and sat in one of the unoccupied seats.

"Axel, Romesh!"

A thin dark-skinned boy walked forward, sat on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on. The hat wasn't on for too long before it bellowed:

"SLYTHERIN!"

A fair few names were called out, including Rawfiah Charizard who got sorted into Gryffindor, until-

"Delacour-Weasley, Stephanie"

Stephanie slowly and nervously walked up to the stool and placed the hat on her head. A minute of silence went by before that hat bellowed:

"RAVENCLAW!"

Lily was looked slightly disheartened as Stephanie was greeted by the Ravenclaw students on the table next to Hufflepuff's.

A few names went by and Mathavan looked on.

"Pacman, Kirisanth"

"That's the boy from my old school," Mathavan whispered to Manoj.

Kiri put on the hat and this time the hat took longer to decide. And eventually -

"Well if you're sure – SLYTHERIN!"

Mathavan was sure Kiri glanced at him for a second before joining in with the celebrations on the Slytherin table on the far left.

"Potter, Lily" was the next student to be called out. Lily walked forward confidently as a few whispers broke out throught the hall. "Silence!" shouted Professor McGonagall. Manoj gave Lily a thumbs up and Lily returned her thanks with a smile. She placed the hat smartly on her head so that it wouldn't slide down any further than her eyebrows.

Without a second's notice that hat bellowed: "GRYFFINDOR!".

Lily looked pretty relieved for someone who said she wanted to be away from her brothers and happily skipped over to the Gryffindor table and took the nearest empty seat as the rest of the Gryffindor students congratulated her. Two more names were called out.

"Rayman, Manoj," called out Professor McGonagall.

"Good luck," Mathavan whispered to him as he walked up to the stool.

He put the hat on and it was the frame of his glasses that was keeping the hat from covering the whole of his head. The hat appeared to be thinking for a few seconds.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Yes!" Mathavan heard Manoj shout in relief shortly followed by a snort from the back of the queue. He turned to see Clement Yaxley eyeing Manoj with a snide smirk on his face. Manoj made his way to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Lily who patted him on the back as the other Gryffindors cheered.

After a few more names Professor McGonagall called out "Sonic, Mathavan."

Curiosity was etched across as face as Mathavan sat on the stool. The hat sat on his head for as long as it did when it was on Kiri's head. Mathavan looked up nervously at Manoj.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat bellowed once more.


	2. Chapter 2: Enter Bin Bin

CHAPTER TWO

"Bye Bin Bin!" called Thiviya after her sister,

"We'll miss you!" squeaked Vivekka loudly.

"I'll be at Radha Aunty's for Christmas, I promise!" Winthya shouted back as she took one last look at her sisters before dragging her suitcase up the stairs to enter King's Cross Station and catching up with her cousins, Manoj and Mathavan.

"You okay Winthya?" Manoj asked her just before they stepped through the wall of the third pillar between platforms nine and ten.

"Yup, I'm okay," she replied half-heartedly and Mathavan turned to look at her and saw that she was definitely going to miss her sisters.

Manoj and Winthya walked through the wall first and Mathavan followed.

"Another mudblood," Mathavan heard Clement Yaxley say loudly as he arrived through the wall on to platform nine and three-quarters. Kiri who stood next to him sniggered.

"Shut the hell up, Yaxley," Manoj shouted angrily.

"Come on Manoj," Winthya was tugging at his arm. "Let's just find a seat on the train. Come on Momo" she said over her shoulder at Mathavan.

Winthiya followed Manoj and as Mathavan started to follow them, both Kiri and Clement barged into Mathavan as they strutted past him which make him drop his suitcase. "See you in the great hall, 'Moooo Moooo'" said Clement imitating a cow and they walked off to the opposite end of the train laughing animatedly.

"Idiots," Mathavan muttered under his breath.

He joined Winthya and Manoj in a compartment which was occupied by Lily and Stephanie who were all deep in conversation.

"-just a loser. Just ignore him, Winthya," advised Manoj.

"What took you so long?" Stephanie asked Mathavan as he sat down next to her.

"Bumped into two of the loser brothers. But Binbin, just wait until you get to Hogwarts. You're gonna love it," he added.

"I know!" said Winthya excitedly. "I can't wait!"

"I wonder where Malfoy was though," said Manoj.

"He probably got bored of Yaxley and was looking for first years to bed to hang around with."

"Haha maybe," Manoj replied.

The Hogwarts Express started to move and the five occupants of the compartment made themselves comfortable.

"So how long does it take to get to Hogwarts?" asked Winthya.

Lily who was looking eagerly at Winthya ever since she got on the train, spoke first.

"Wow you're like totally American!"

Winthya smiled and corrected her.

"Nope, I'm Canadian."

"So Canadians speak like Americans too? That's so cool! Is it true Canadians pronounce 'out' as 'uhwoot'?" Lily asked in the same excited tone.

Winthya and Mathavan laughed.

"No it isn't," she said still laughing. "But you're not the first to ask me that," she added as she purposefully threw a pair of evil eyes at Mathavan but was smiling at the same time. Mathavan struggled to stop laughing.

Lily smirking as Mathavan snorted to stop himself from laughing finally said: "The journey is about an hour long by the way,".

"Oh okay thanks," replied Winthya smiling at Lily. The smile was returned by Lily.

Manoj and Mathavan were now giving each other an arm-wrestle on the pull-out food table. It seemed to take a lifetime for the back of Manoj's hand to touch the table.

"That's five in a row mate," Mathavan gloated.

"But you've got bigger arms than me; There's no point in keeping score," Manoj admitted.

Mathavan seemed to be satisfied with this answer as he lay back in his seat looking proud of himself.

"Yeah enough of the macho games Mathavan," said Stephanie. "You always win."

"Alright, alright, no more macho games," Mathavan conceded in defeat.

"I've got cards," Winthya said hopefully.

"Nice one Bin Bin," replied Mathavan.

"Are these muggle cards? I've always wanted to play muggle card games," admitted Stephanie.

"We could play spoons?" suggested Winthya.

But they didn't have spoons so they used candy sticks from the food trolley and played 'sticks' instead. There was a lot of banging on the table and girlish squeals from the five of them; Most of the girlish squeals came from Mathavan. They had to pay extra visits to the food trolley as Winthya kept on snapping the candy sticks that she snatched at. The others didn't mind these extra trips as they used this as an excuse to fulfil their cravings for sweets. Winthya won three games in a row.

"You're just too quick with your hands Winthya. You might make a good seeker. Mathavan and Manoj made the Gryffindor quidditch team in their first year even if they were filling in for-" Lily was cut off by a voice on the train.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

As soon as the announcement was over the boys let the girls change first and stepped outside. Even after all the broken candy sticks they had helped themselves to they still made their way to the food trolley. They entered the next carriage and suddenly stopped in their tracks. The girl they saw at the food trolley looked awfully familiar.

"Is it me or has Scorpius Malfoy found a spell to turn him into a girl?" asked Mathavan.

"Must be his sister. That is so weird. They look so alike! Apart from her having dark brown hair," said Manoj.

"Oi!"

Mathavan and Manoj turned to face the owner of the ever so familiar call.

"What's up Malfoy? Good summer?" Manoj asked sarcastically.

"Don't play nice with me Manoj "Gayman". What are you doing? Do you know who that is you're bullying?" and he nodded in the direction of his sister who turned around at the sound of Scorpius Malfoy's voice.

"Honestly mate, we didn't say a word-"

Scorpius drew his wand. Mathavan and Manoj did the same.

"Don't lie to me! If I find you upsetting Paulina again, I'll have you! Paulina let's go," ordered Scorpius Malfoy.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of that carriage to the compartments that the Slytherins usually sat in.

"Well that was..." Manoj said deciding on the best way of finishing his sentence.

"Not normal?" suggested Mathavan.

"Definitely not normal," Manoj agreed.

The girls arrived at the food trolley and as the boys made their way to their carriage they heard Winthya trying to buy a number of candysticks so they could play 'sticks' at Hogwarts.

The train finally arrived at the school and Winthya joined the rest of the first-year students who were going to be led up to the castle in boats with Hagrid.

Manoj, Lily, Mathavan and Stephanie however were to be taken to the Hogwarts castle by victorian carriages which appeared to pull themselves.

"What house d'ya reckon Winthya's gonna be in? She says she wants to be in Gryffindor," said Manoj.

"Then she'll be in Gryffindor without a shadow of a doubt. The hat takes into your account your interest before making a decision," Mathavan explained and noticed that he was attracting suspicious looks from Lily.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"I read about it in a library book last year," he said truthfully.

He stumbled across the subject during a History Of Magic project about the history of the four houses. However he wasn't prepared to tell his friends about exactly what the sorting hat said about him on his first day at Hogwarts just yet.

"Fair enough."

Lily appeared to finally give up on her suspicions. Mathavan was slightly relieved to see the muscles in Lily's cheekbone relax however felt mostly guilt about keeping this secret from his best friends. 'You can live with this' Mathavan thought to himself. The carriages that pulled themselves reached the gates of Hogwarts and Professor Flitwick was waiting for students to tick them off the register.

"Right let's see who we have here," he said to himself in his squeaky voice.

"It;s great to see you again Miss Delacour-Weasley. Did you enjoy your Summer break?"

Professor Flitwick was the head of Ravenclaw house and he absolutely adored Stephanie as she was the cleverest Ravenclaw student in the year.

"Yes sir, my dad took us to visit Uncle Charlie in Romania," explained Stephanie. "I had a great time."

"Oh that sounds wonderful. I shall see you at the feast," said Professor Flitwick beaming brightly at Stephanie.

"Miss Potter, Mr Rayman and Mr Sonic, I have you marked in now. You may all proceed to the Great Hall."

Indifferently toned and timed chants of 'Yes Professor' were heard from the four of them. They entered the Great Hall and Stephanie took a seat on the Ravenclaw table and Manoj, Mathavan and Lily took their seats at the Gryffindor table but positioned themselves as close to Stephanie as possible.

"I can't wait for the sorting to be over. I'm starving!" said Mathavan carelessly loudly.

"You're cousin's getting sorted and all you can think about is food. You're such a pig," Lily said disapprovingly.

"Hey pigs bathe in their own poo! I'd rather be a..."

Mathavan paused and thought to himself for a second. "What _am_ I trying to prove here?" he asked himself looking utterly confused which made Lily giggle.

"Go on Bin Bin!" he then shouted as the first-years began to walk through the middle of the Great Hall lead by Professor McGonagall who threw a sour angry look at Mathavan which told him that his outburst was out of line. He mouthed 'sorry' silently and Mathavan thought disbelievingly that the end of Professor McGonagall's mouth twisted into a smile for half a second but then returned to its sour unwelcoming position. Winthya caught his eye, blushed and smiled nervously. Manoj gave her a thumbs up and Lily waved. She returned Lily's wave but this time with a big smile across her face. She knew she had a new friend before she even got put into a house and was truly grateful to Manoj and Mathavan for sitting in Lily's and Stephanie's compartment on the train. The first-years were now getting sorted and Mathavan complained many times in Manoj's ear about the hat taking too long with it's decisions as hunger got the best of him. Finally after what seemed, according to Mathavan, a lifetime a certain name was called up by Professor McGonagall.

"Vulpix, Winthya."

Winthya put on the hat eagerly and it was on her head in a slant so that only her left eye was visible.

"Hmmmm..." they heard the hat say. And a few seconds later, the hat made it's decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Winthya gleefully jumped up from the seat as the rest of the Gryffindors greeted her and she squealed in celebration with Lily after she hugged her two cousins. Stephanie looked on from the Ravenclaw table feeling a little left out.


	3. Chapter 3: Another Rayman

CHAPTER THREE

"Dude you better be right about this Hogwarts because I could've been going to high school with Savvy and-"

"Dude! Relax!" said Manoj loudly.

"Remember when Hagrid came to our house to tell me about Hogwarts? Remember when he said we were wizards?" he asked his younger brother as they were approaching the wall of the third pillar between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross Station.

"Yeah I remember," replied Arun, who was considerably shorter than Manoj but with the same black hair, thinking that he would probably never forger that particular moment.

"Was that not the coolest thing ever?"

"Yeah it was," admitted Arun as they walked through the wall and stepped out on to platform nine and three quarters.

"We're all gonna miss people we're not gonna see at Hogwarts but there's always owl post if you wanna hear from them and you'll get to see them during the holidays. Plus you'll meet cool people at Hogwarts."

"Yeah okay Manoj, I'm convinced now," muttered Arun embarrassingly and looked around to make sure nobody overheard. There were only three other children being seen off by their parents on platform nine and three-quarters at that moment and the Hogwarts Express seemed empty. Arun looked at his watch and saw that they arrived at the station half an hour early.

"See! We didn't need to rush! I knew I could've slept for longer! You're such a loser Manoj. I bet you're always super early." Arun's rant was loud enough for people on platform one to hear.

"Shut up dude. I've never been this early before. I usually struggle to find a free compartment. Come on let's find one and save seats for the others."

As they went to look for a compartment to sit on the train, Winthya and Mathavan were getting seen off by Winthya's sisters and their Aunty Radha.

"Children, I can't park the car here because we're on a red line. Mathavan and Winthya I will see you during the holidays."

"Bye Aunty Radha."

"See you at Christmas."

"Vivekka and Thiviya you can say a quick bye to them while I drive around and come here to pick up. Okay?"

"Thanks Aunty Radha," said Winthya's sisters together in harmony.

They all stepped out of the car, helped to take Winthya's and Mathavan's suitcases out of the boot and stood outside the only train station known to all magical people.

"Oh my god, I can't wait to go to Hogwarts next year! I can change my hair colour already to whatever colour I want to. See." Vivekka's hair turned to a greenish colour. "Now it's green."

"That's turquoise Vivekka,"Mathavan attempted to correct her.

"No it's green!" protested Vivekka. "Help me out here Dibiki!" She added as she turned to Thiviya.

"Momo... it's green, dude," Thiviya said in a 'there's no way around this one' tone.

Mathavan took one last look at her hair before she turned it back to her orangey-red highlights.

"Urgh..." he spluttered in defeat.

"At least you're going next year. I've stil got..." Thiviya began counting her fingers. "...three years to go!" And with that outburst she frowned.

"Dibiki, trust me it will be worth the wait," Mathavan said as he tried to convince her.

"Hmmmm... yeah I guess so," Thiviya said inconvinced.

"Yeah, Dibiki. Professor McGonagall said there are many secrets in Hogwarts that even she doesn't know about. If we find any of them we'll let you know and you'll know all about Hogwarts in your first year unlike us," Winthya explained.

Thiviya thought about her sister's words and smiled.

"We'd better get going Bin Bin and get good seats on the train. Besides I think I see Radha Aunty's car at those traffic lights. Have a good year you two, okay," Mathavan said looking from Vivekka to Thiviya.

"You too Momo! And you Winnie! See you in the holidays," Thiviya replied with a slight tone of regret in her voice and hugged her cousin and then her sister.

"Thanks Momo. Have a good term too guys!" said Vivekka encouragingly and received hugs from Winthya and Mathavan.

"Ciao sisters! Take care of yourselves!" Winthya called out as she walked up the stairs that led to the station.

"Take care Dibiki! And the turquoise look suited you Vivekka!" shouted out Mathavan and he heard a loud, muffled disapproving 'hey' as the girls got in their aunty's car.

Winthya and Mathavan got to platforms nine and ten in no time and walked through the wall which took them to the ever so welcoming platform nine and three-quarters.

"I can't wait to see Lily," Winthya said excitedly as they quickly turned their backs on the Slytherins before they saw them and tried to find a compartment to sit in.

"Yeah. And Stephanie," Mathavan said hopefully.

"Hmmmm..." was Winthya's response to hearing Lily's cousin's name.

They hadn't heard from Stephanie all Summer. She had been avoiding them for most of last year without any reason evident behind her actions according to Winthya, Lily and Manoj. She hadn't spoken to those three since the first day of school last year. Mathavan managed to corner her as he caught her hand after the last Transfiguration lesson of the year as she made way for the corridor that led to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Let go of me. What're you doing? You're not allowed in our common room," she said as she turned to face Mathavan.

"I'm not in you're common room."

"Let go of my hand!"

"No."

"I'm warning you."

"And I feel very warned."

"Let go!"

"No can do."

"Why not?"

"Because we miss you."

"No, you don't! Manoj just ignores me whenever he walks past me."

"And who's fault could that be I wonder?"

"I can't be seen talking to you! Any of you! They'll hate me," Stephanie finally admitted.

"Who? You're Ravenclaw pals? They sound like they have you're best intentions at heart." Mathavan snarled sarcastically.

"They do! They've been kind to me all year since I got kicked out of your little clique."

"What makes you think you got kicked out?"

"Sorting at the beginning of the year. You lot were making jokes and having fun at the Gryffindor table without any sign of wishing I was there. Then Winthya got sorted into Gryffindor and you were all hugging and cheering without looking at me to see that I was smiling back. I was hurt that night. I knew she had replaced me. That bi-,"

"Whoa, hold it there now lassie. That's my cousin you're talking about. She was a first-year without a friend at Hogwarts and we invited her into our group of friends. She had no intention of replacing anyone."

Stephanie had eventually hit a nerve. Mathavan wasn't bothered about Stephanie's immature assumptions but to speak rudely or to accuse a person he was close with of a crime they didn't commit was stepping over the line.

"Winthya replaced you because you made it so. You left and she's been great fun. I admit I did miss you but if that's how you feel, then it's best that you stick with your Ravenclaw pals. See you around."

And with that Mathavan threw her hand down and turned his back on her. He marched rapidly and furiously in the other direction without waiting for a response he didn't expect to receive although he thought he heard a whispered sob saying his name but he could have easily imagined it.

As he thought about this he remembered that he didn't want to see Stephanie.

"Hmm...maybe not Stephanie then," Mathavan said.

"Why not?" asked Winthya as she opened the door to a compartment and greeted Arun, Manoj and Lily who were sitting in it.

"Because if she doesn't want to make the effort then it's just a waste of time worrying about her, isn't it?" answered Mathavan as he took the seat next to Hogwarts Express started to take off. "Good point," admitted Winthya.

"Talking about Stephanie?" asked Manoj.

"Yep," answered Winthya.

"Just forget her. She's made up her mind. She doesn't wanna hang out with us anymore."

"It's true," Lily added. "She wouldn't talk about it when our family visited her house over the Summer."

"Alright guys, let's change subject. Let's not neg Arun out on his first day of Hogwarts eh? Bin Bin did you bring cards?"

"Yup!"

"Great. Let's find the food trolley and get us some candysticks!"

All five of them left for the food trolley. Arun was in awe. He loved sweets and the sight of so many colourful tasty-looking gums and pastilles got his juices flowing. They returned to the compartment each of them having pocketfuls of sweets with the exception of Arun who was leaning backwards while walking ahead carrying sweets in his arms huddled against his chest. They played three games of sticks and Winthya's five win streak (continuing from the last year's journey) was broken by Arun.

"Haha!" he laughed out loud in happiness and was too overjoyed for words but had the biggest smile across his face. The voice on the train that told them they would be arriving at Hogwarts soon stopped them from starting a forth game. The boys bumped into the Slytherins at the food trolley as they let the girls change into their robes.

"I thought it smelt of mudbloods in here. And look! There's another one," Clement Yaxley said pointing at Arun.

"Mind your language young man." The old lady pushing the food trolley said sternly to Clement. Her voice killed the laughter of Kiri, Scorpius and his other stooges.

"Yeah Clement. Language," said Mathavan as if he was egging him on. Clement took two strides towards Mathavan and they stared into each others faces. Their noses were five centimetres apart and Mathavan didn't back down.

"That's enough!" shouted the lady.

Clement's right eyebrow jumped and he turned away with his stooges behind him which Mathavan took to mean 'we'll continue this later'. He saw Kiri belatedly turn around to look at him before they left the carriage.

"Got something to say mate?" Mathavan asked him.

"Shut up," Kiri shot at him as if it were an automated response to whatever he said and he strutted to the next carriage after Yaxley with the door shutting behind him.

"If I didn't know better..," started Manoj. "I'd say you've got more of a grudge against Kiri than Yaxley."

"Yeah, what was that about?" asked Arun.

"We used to be best friends. It's him turning on me that hits me bad. I can't turn away from how it used to be that easily. Clement's just as idiot who walks around thinking he runs Hogwarts."

They heard the door behind them open and turned to see a young, tall ginger-haired boy walk past them.

"He has to be a Weasley," Manoj whispered so quietly that only his cousin and his brother could hear.

"But I don't want to ask him in case he isn't."

"What's a Weasley?" asked Arun loudly.

The boy rotated to look at the three boys behind him. Both Manoj and Mathavan gave Arun annoyed looks. The ginger-haired boy hurried to pay for his sweets and left the carriage.

"That was really smooth Arun," said Mathavan sarcastically.

"Yeah Arun! Did you not pick up on the whispering?" Manoj asked annoyed.

"I'm sorry but I didn't know what a Weasel-see was," Arun claimed.

"The Weasleys..." Manoj emphasised the name. "...are a big wizarding family. Probably the largest. Lily is related to them through her mum. She told me that they are very friendly. That Stephanie girl we were talking about earlier is a Weasley although she's an exception to the very friendly thing."

Mathavan's heart skipped a beat but he didn't want to say anything to disrupt the flow of the conversation.

"Yeah," he quickly agreed as Lily and Winthya had changed into their robes. The boys returned to their compartment to get dressed while the two girls hung around the food trolley.

"How many more of you are there?" asked Lily.

"Well my first sister, Vivekka, will be coming next year. And I think Vivian, who is a family friend, will be too. I know he didn't win at blackjack ten times in a row without changing the numbers on his cards. A year after that I think Mathavan's sister, Vithiyaa, will be coming as well as our cousin Meenaha. Her mum said she's been able to do some weird stuff at home. Then the year after that it's my youngest sister, Thiviya, Vivian's sister, Priya, and Meenaha's sister, Rathika, who should be coming."

"Wow," said Lily in astonishment. "There are gonna be a lot of you!"

"Yep, it's going to be crazy once we're all in. But Lily, is there anything new with you?" Winthya forced the question out quickly and had apparently been wanting to ask the question for a while.

"Ummm...no, not really."

"Hmmm...how are things between you and Manoj?" Winthya asked still quicker than her normal talking speed.

Lily hesitated for a few seconds and slightly slowed her walking pace. She knew she had stared into Manoj's eyes for a moment too long when Winthya and Mathavan had walked into their compartment earlier. She had honestly wanted to tell Winthya how she felt about Manoj but Lily didn't plan on letting her know like this.

"Ummm...I don't know what you're talking about. How do you mean?"

Lily didn't need Winthya's giggle to tell her that she hadn't been convincing enough.

"You like Manoj! That look you were giving him when we got in was deeper than a look shared between two friends!"

"Oh alright!" Lily gave in looking slightly embarrassed. "But you have to promise to keep it a secret. I don't plan on acting on how I feel any time soon. I don't know how he'll react."

"Lily, you can trust me. I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks Bin Bin," Lily said smiling knowing that her secret was safe even if Winthya hadn't said she that she wouldn't tell anyone.

An hour or so went by and Stephanie was sitting at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall with her fellow Ravelclaws whispering and giggling animatedly quietly as the first-years were getting sorted. Arun was waiting nervously near the end of the queue. Manoj, Lily, Mathavan and Winthya were sitting together at the Gryffindor table. Mathavan was looking as miserable as ever while eyeing the empty bowls and dishes in front of him and imagined the delicious food that would appear in them after the sorting was over.

"Rayman, Arun," called out Professor McGonagall.

"The moment of truth," whispered Manoj quietly so that only Lily, Winthya and Mathavan could hear.

"He'll be in Gryffindor," Winthya said confidently. "Although he could be evil enough to sit at the Slytherin table," she added jokingly as Arun walked forward, sat on the stool and placed the Sorting Hat on his head which covered the top half of his face. The hat wasn't on for too long until it exclaimed: "GRYFFINDOR!"


	4. Chapter 4: Double Trouble

CHAPTER FOUR: DOUBLE TROUBLE

It was the eve of the first day of school and darkness had overpowered the former bright blue sky in Mitcham as Mathavan kneeled on the end of his bed leaning on the windowsill staring at the growing dark sky holding his phone to his ear.

"Okay Aunty Radha ...Yeah it's fine. It will take me less than an hour to get to King's Cross Station. I'll just take the bus and then the tube...Okay...Thanks...See you at Christmas Aunty Radha. Take care. Bye."

He went to the living room to put the wireless phone back on its holder.

"What did Aunty Radha say?" asked Vithiyaa. Mathavan's sister, who was six years younger than him, was a lot shorter than Mathavan as the top of her head came up to his elbows. Her long straight hair fell down to the middle of her back and her long eyelashes made her look like she was constantly wearing eye-liner.

"Aunty's Radha's car's going to be full because she's taking Winthya, Vivekka, Thiviya and they need space for Vivekka's school stuff as well as Winthya's stuff. I'll have to wake up early and take the bus and tube."

"Appa's not well so he can't take you either."

"Nope. It's not a problem; I don't mind travelling. What are we having for dinner?" he asked as he was getting one of his hourly stomach rumbles.

"Amma's making grilled chicken pieces with rice," replied Vithiyaa excitedly.

"Aww yeah! My favourite!" shouted Mathavan while jumping up celebrating. He loved his food.

"Amma is there extra extra hot nando's sauce in the fridge?" he asked loudly looking towards the kitchen. They heard the fridge door open and a few jars or bottles hitting each other slightly.

"Yes there is! Bottom shelf!" their mum shouted back.

"Brilliant! Thanks 'ma! The best dinner before Hogwarts."

"I wanna go to Hogwarts!" whined Vithiyaa.

"All in good time, little one. You've got two more years," Mathavan explained.

"Hmph!" Vithiyaa crossed her arms looking disappointed.

The morning came and at 7am Mathavan was still sleeping through his alarm but in Wallington Vivian was wide awake and lively. He wasn't very tall but was average height for an eleven year old. 'I'm going to Hogwarts' he thought to himself. It felt as if excitement was pumped throughout his body. He couldn't wait. He would leave his house in a few hours but he wanted to leave now.

"I'm going to Hogwarts!" he bellowed on the top of his voice.

"We know Vivian," he heard his younger sister, Priya, call back tiredly.

His parents wouldn't wake up until at least an hour later. Hunger gave him an urge to wake his parents but decided against it. Instead he went downstairs to the living room to play on the playstation three. An hour of FIFA 11 went by and Vivian's mother eventually came down to the kitchen and started to make breakfast.

"I hope you have a good time at Hogwarts," Priya said at the dining table before taking a bite out of a sausage.

"Thanks," said Vivian as he struggled to cut his slice of bacon.

"But you can't use any magic on me until I start because it won't be fair."

"Haha, we'll see about that," Vivian said in a forcefully evil voice.

Priya didn't know whether to laugh or be scared as she didn't know whether her brother was joking or not. As she worried about what was going to happen next summer she cleaned up her plate and hurried to her bedroom.

Arun and Manoj were in the back of their dad's car ready to leave their house in Southall to make haste to King's Cross Station.

"You're so old Manoj. You're in your forth year."

"Hey, I've still got three more years at Hogwarts," protested Manoj.

"Yeah and I've got six," Arun said smiling. "And I can't believe you were so scared of talking to Fred Weasley a year ago in the food trolley compartment. He's like the coolest guy."

"I didn't know him a year ago. I wasn't exactly going to go up to a stranger and go 'heya, you alright?'" he imitated an over-enthusiastic tone.

Arun laughed at his brother's unnatural tone.

"How do you reckon Vivian's going to react when he actually finds out that Harry Potter's daugter is one of our best friends?" asked Arun.

"To be honest I don't know why he didn't believe us when we told him about Lily in the first place. It's not like we've lied to him before. But yeah he's gonna be gobsmacked," said Manoj.

One night during the summer holidays Aunty Radha invited Mathavan's, Manoj's and Vivian's family for dinner at her house. Mathavan told Vivian about Harry Potter and how much of a hero he was in the wizarding world.

"He's like the batman of the wizarding world," was the comparison Mathavan made. But when Manoj told vivan that Lily Potter was their best friend Vivian refused to believe it.

"You best friends with magical batman's daughter? Like he even has a daughter," he said stubbornly.

"He might think we're not cool enough to be friends with Lily," said Arun as their cat stopped at a red light about 12 miles from King's Cross Station.

"I don't really know what he thought," replied Manoj as if he had more pressing matters to worry about. "This year they start teaching according to the OWL syllabus. Me and Mathavan can't be messing around too much this year," Manoj said warily.

"Dude. You've got two years until your OWLs. Take a chill pill," advised Arun.

Five minutes later, ten miles from the opposite side of King's Cross Station chaos seemed to be happening in Aunty Radha's car.

"Bin Bin, you may be the oldest but you are definitely not the tallest," explained Thiviya loudly.

"Umm Dibiki. I'm taller than you," said Winthya just as loudly.

"No you're not," denied Thiviya.

"Yes I am!"

"I think we're all the same height," stated Vivekka out of nowhere.

"Err you're the shortest. Even Dibiki is taller than you."

"I'm taller than you too!" exclaimed Thiviya.

"Girls! You're giving me a headache! Can't you talk about something else and measure yourselves when you get to school?" asked Aunty Radha calmly.

"Sorry Aunty Radha. We'll stop shouting" said Winthya in a much quieter tone.

Thiviya and Vivekka apologised too.

"That's okay," said Aunty Radha. "Me and you're mother used to fight all the time. But do it when I'm not around," she added which resulted in sly smirks on the faces of the three sisters.

Arun and Manoj walked on to platform nine and three-quarters first.

"Urgh! We're always here first!" complained Arun.

Manoj was about to step on to the Hogwarts Express followed by his brother when they heard a call.

"Manoj! Arun! Hold up!"

They stopped in their tracks and rotated to get a better look at Mathavan dragging his suitcase through the wall and onto the platform. He made his way towards his cousins.

"Hey man. I heard you were getting here on your own. How was the journey?" asked Manoj.

"Yeah it was alright. It was peaceful. I almost missed this stop because I was taking a nap."

They managed to sit in the same compartment that they had sat in for the previous three years which always happened to be empty. Shortly after they were joined by Winthya and the two new students, Vivian and Vivekka. The three boys cheered as the two new Hogwarts students walked past.

"Hey hey! Welcome to the Hogwarts Express!" Mathavan said looking from Vivian to Vivekka.

"Hey Winthya," he added not wanting her to feel left out. "Did you have a good summer?"

"Yeah it's always good doing back home and seeing the family," she replied.

"How's Dibiki doing?" asked Mathavan.

"She's good. I think she's worried that she's going to be the only kid at home," Vivekka answered this time.

"I'm sure she'll be okay," said Mathavan. "She'll always find new Korean dramas to keep her busy," he added jokingly but then contemplated about what he had just said and was surprised to realise how much truth there might be in what he said.  
>"So...I don't see Harry Potter's daughter..." Vivian said smiling as if he was expecting either of the boys to say that it was a joke.<p>

Before anyone could speak, the compartment door opened and Lily, whose looks grew more beautiful the older she grew, walked in. They saw Stephanie rush past her to find another compartment.

"Hello there...Lily Potter," greeted Manoj.

"Why are you calling me by my surname? You loser," Lily replied smiling.

"I'm just making sure everyone in this compartment knows your name. Lily, this is Vivekka Winthya's sister, and this is Vivian. He's a family friend. Guys, this is Lily Potter," Manoj introduced her looking from Vivekka to vivian but prolonged his stare at the latter.

"Hello," said Vivekka enthusiastically.

Vivian was staring at Lily speechlessly and after a few moments he spoke.

"What's your real name?"

Arun snorted at Vivian's question. Manoj smiled but looked as if her was trying very hard to stop himself from laughing. Mathavan looked at Vivian shaking his head. Winthya and Vivekka, who didn't have a clue about what was going on gave Vivian weird looks. Lily raised her right eyebrow. Vivian looking around at everyone's reaction knew at once that he'd asked a stupid question.

"My name really is Lily Potter," said Lily seriously.

"Oh right. Okay. Sorry," Vivian conceded.

"It's fine."

"Vivsy what house do you want to be in?" asked Arun wanting to change the awkward atmosphere as the Hogwarts Express began to move.

"Gryffindor – the same as you guys."

"Nice one," said Mathavan.

"Anyone up for a few games of sticks?" asked Winthya.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes.." Vivekka replied excitedly while slapping her hands on her lap repeatedly as if attempting to urge them on.

"Yeah go on then," said Lily as they made their way to the food trolley compartment to get candy sticks. When they reached the food compartment their return was delayed but not by the Slytherins this time.

"You're all going to play sticks now, aren't you?"

They all turned around to see Stephanie. Her long ginger hair was now straight and fell down to her elbows. It looked as if she'd lost a few pounds too since Mathavan once cornered her outside the Ravenclaw common room.

"Yes, we are," Lily replied softly.

"Mind if I join in?" asked Stephanie quietly. Her cheeks turned a bright rosy colour.

Manoj was about to open his mouth and by the looks of his facial expression what he was going to say wasn't going to be comforting. Mathavan reacted quickly.

"Yeah sure," said Mathavan, taking a step forward.

"You'll always be welcome with us as long as you consider each and every one of us as your friends," he added thinking of what Stephanie had said about Winthya during the last time they spoke. He hadn't shared the contents of their conversation with anyone.

"Yes I do! I am sorry for avoiding everyone all this time. I'm sorry."

The last word came out as a whisper as she broke off and covered her beautiful face with her hands as she hid the tears trickling from her eyes. Mathavan wanted to comfort her but was afraid to make the first move but was grateful to see Lily step forward and hug Stephanie. Mathavan then followed and patted her on the back. It took them a while to move from the food trolley compartment and get back to their compartment. Winthya had lost some of the excitement that she had when she first got on the train. Manoj guessed that it was because according to Winthya, anytime spent on the Hogwarts Express not playing a card game was time wasted.

"Sticks?" Wintyha asked.

"YES!" squealed Vivekka.

"Stephanie?" called Wintyha.

Stephanie looked at ther and it wasn't a few seconds before she belatedly replied.

"Yes Bin Bin?"

"This is my younger sister Vivekka. And that..." she said pointing at the young boy with a lot of hair on his head sitting between Mathavan and Arun, "is Vivian. He's a family friend."

"Hi Vivekka. Hi Vivian."

"Hello Stephanie!" Vivekka said while Winthya began to shuffle the pack of cards.

"Hey Stephanie," said Vivian.

Winthya dealt the cards and as usual there was a lot of loud banging and girlish squealing from Mathavan. After three rounds of sticks, Mathavan slapped his cards down in frustration.

"Vivian! Dude! You've got to stop cheating mate."

"How am I cheating?" Vivian asked apparently shocked.

Mathavan had expected this sort of automated unreasonable defence mechanism to spring up as it happened during many past experiences of disagreements with Vivian.  
>"Mate. You're taking cards from the pile in front of me without looking at them," explained Mathavan.<p>

"You're taking too long to pass them," Vivian complained.

"I still have to look at those cards before you, dude. You only get to look at cards I pass on to you. I only have two hands."

"We all have two hands," Vivian responded when Mathavan had barely finished spreaking and laughed to himself mischievously.

"Okay then Vivian," Mathavan finally said as he took a deep breath in through his nose and blew the air out softly.

Manoj glanced at his cousin.

"Easy boy. It's just a game," said Manoj.

"It's just a game," repeated Mathavan calmly.

They played another round and whether Vivian was wary about how Mathavan would react or whether Vivian simply decided to play the game the proper way there were no disagreements apart from Winthya's complaining about Vivekka's slow dealing of cards. The awkwardness of Stephanie's presence in the room slowly subsided with the more games they played.

After half an hour Mathavan, Manoj, Arun, Lily and Winthya were positioned together on the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Stephanie was sitting just behind them on the Ravenclaw table. Vivian was standing behind Vivekka in the line of first-years waiting to get sorted.

"What would you do if you were put in Slytherin?" Vivian whispered into her ear.

"Hey!" Vivekka squeaked a little loudly which resulted in a 'shhh' from a stern looking Professor McGonagall.

"That's not a very nice question to ask," Vivekka whispered back.

"It could happen."

Vivekka turned to face Vivian and poked him on the shoulder.

"Oww," Vivian said loudly.

"Be quiet!" Professor McGonagall called out with her tone of voice growing more impatient.

Vivian poked her back and now him and Vivekka were having a poking war in the middle of the Great Hall silently with muted giggling.

"Ermm..." said Arun as the other four of them turned to look in the direction that he nodded in. They looked on at Vivian and Vivekka causing silent havoc.

They saw Professor McGonagall turn to the face where the noise of shuffling feet was coming from. Her expression was murderous when she saw what was going on.

"They're in for it now. Silly people," said Winthya.

Professor McGonagall stormed up the line of first-years and stopped where Vivekka and Vivian stood like frieghtened statues. They both had their hands straight by their sides and faced forward with their eyes wide open full of fright.

"What do you two think you are doing?" those on the Gryffinndor table barely heard Professor McGonagall whisper angrily. She continued her tantrum in a muted level so that the others couldn't make out what she said. Once she had ended her quiet rant she marched up to the front of the Hall again. Vivian and Vivekka remained in the same frightened statue positions until their names were called.

"Bomberman, Vivian."

Vivian walked forward and appeared to be shaking as he approached the front of the room. He turned and sat on the stool after only catching Professor Mcgonagall's eye for half a second. He put the hat on his head and after a few seconds the hat opened its large mouth.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Vivian took the hat off and rushed over to the applauding Gryffindor table and was greeted by the students nearby. A lot of names were called out before Professor McGonagall called out, "Vulpix, Vivekka." As she slowly strolled forward her right shoulder was aching after the number of times Vivian had poked her. She looked over at her friends and cousins on the Gryffindor table. They all either waved or gave her a thumbs up apart from Vivian who was doing a poking motion with his index finger. Vivekka smiled and sat on the stool and put the sorting hat on in one fluent movement. The hat wasn't on her head for long before it made it's decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"


	5. Chapter 5: Two More's A Party

CHAPTER 5:

"Hogwarts!" shouted Manega just before she threw herself into the back-seat of her dad's car on the morning of the first day of the school year.

"I'm sure the people of the wizarding world won't appreciate it if you tell everyone in our world that you're going to Hogwarts, Manega," said her younger sister, Rathika.

"Nobody apart from people in the wizarding world knows about Hogwarts," Manega defended herself. "They'll think I'm weird for shouting out a random word," she added.

"If they've seen you before then they will already know that you're weirder."

Rathika usually got outsmarted by her older sister verbally and never took it well. She raised her left arm to scratch her sister, which was usually an instinctive reaction, but she thought better of it. After a few seconds of her arm floating in mid-air she let it drop down beside her.

"Phew," whispered Manega relieved.

"At least I got you scared temporarily," said Rathika self-satisfyingly.

"Who wouldn't be scared of your left claw?" asked Manega rhetorically.

"That's a good point," admitted Manega's younger sister as their dad slowed the car right down at the traffic lights that had just turned red twenty minutes away from King's Cross Station.

Not too many blocks behind Manoj's and Arun's mother was driving with them in the back seat towards the same train station.

"Manega and Vithiyaa's turn now.." said Arun.

"Yup. Two more Gryffindors I expect," said Manoj confidently.

"Do you reckon you'll get to be the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team now that James Potter has finished with school?"

"Well Albus is still there but I don't see him as a leader. It could either be me or Mathavan. Or I hope it's me or Mathavan."

"What's the team going to be? Mathavan as keeper. Lily's an amazing chaser. You're a beater. Albus is seeker obviously. Who are going to be the other chaser and beater?

"Winthya was amazing in try-outs last year and was unlucky not to get picked first time I reckon. And dude if you just worked on your swing you could be a good beater. That will be the dream team and we're all good friends too which makes it even better."

"Yeah.." Arun didn't really take in anything his brother had said after hearing that Manoj considered him being part of this year's Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was determined to work hard to earn his place in the team. He stared outside the window as he was deeply lost in his thoughts.

Five minutes away from getting to King's Cross Station from the opposite side of London to where Manega's and Manoj's family were, Vivian was deep in conversation with his sister in the back seat of their father's car.

"So Professor Weasley teaches Transfiguration?" asked Priya.

"Yep. Flitwick teaches Charms. Slughorn teaches Potions and Professor Cresswell teaches Defence Against The Dark Arts. He's everyone's favourite teacher."

"What's he like?"

"Well apparently when Voldemort and his death eaters were at large Dirk Cresswell, who was working at the Ministry Of Magic, got forced into hiding as he was one of the few at the Ministry who opposed Voldemort. He survived and supposedly tried to take on Voldemort by himself but managed to escape when Voldemort was about to kill him but he took out loads of death eaters before and after Voldemort's downfall. So yeah. He knows all about the dark arts and how to defend against it and is an amazing teacher."

"Wow. He sounds brave," Priya conceded sounding impressed.

"Yeah. Bet you can't wait to come next year!"

"Yeah I can't wait.." said Priya and she too stared outside the window contemplating about how great life at Hogwarts would be.

"Vithz, mate. The last time I was this close to missing the Hogwarts Express was on my first day! Pick up your pace!" Mathavan shouted over his shoulder as he rushed down the corridor of King's Cross Station heading towards platforms nine and ten.

"My legs and arms are hurting Anna! I have to walk this slow," complained Vithiyaa, his younger sister.

"Urgh..give me your suitcase and hurry down to the third pillar on platforms nine and ten. I'll be right behind you."

"Okay. Thanks Anna!" and with that she skipped towards the third pillar on the platform. She skipped on to platform nine and three-quarters with Mathavan shortly behind struggling as he was dragging two suitcases through the wall. He stumbled and fell on top of the suitcases and rolled onto the concrete ground. A cackle of harsh laughter broke out and he turned his head to see Clement Yaxley, Scorpius Malfoy, Romesh Axel and Kirisanth Pacman laughing crazily along with the other Slytherins.

"Watch you're step there, mudblood. Watcha got there? An extra suitcase to fill your fat belly?" jeered Clement which brought about another harsh cackle of laughter.

"Shut it you mug," mocked Mathavan mimicking Clement's cockney accent after he pulled himself to his feet and picked up his and his sister's suitcase.

Vithiyaa wasn't sure about what to do. Her brother always warned her not to get involved in his affairs and she felt intimidated by the group of Slytherins but she also wanted to help Mathavan. She walked to where her brother was standing and took the handle of her suitcase from his grasp.

"I think my arms are feeling better, Anna. Let's get on the train. It's leaving in a minute."

"Hahaha! Yeah Anna!" Malfoy didn't say 'Anna' like Vithiyaa had used as a respectful way to refer to her brother but pronounced 'Anna' as a girl's name. "Go and get your butt on the train," and with that the Slytherins left to get on their compartment laughing in their usual manic fashion.

"Come on Vithz. Let's get on."

"Wait up! Hold the train!" they heard a familiar voice call from behind them.

Vithiyaa who just stepped on to the train turned to see Winthya's suitcase roll forward at a fast pace to collide into the front of Mathavan who fell backwards into the train through the open train doors.

"I'm so sorry!" cried Winthya as she leapt a surprisingly long leap over Mathavan and used the wall of the inside of the train to keep her balance. Mathavan wasn't surprised at how energetic Winthya could be. Vivekka, who was beside herself with laughter, waited for Mathavan to get up and carry his and Winthya's suitcase on board before Vivekka got on with her suitcase. The Hogwarts Express started to take off as soon as Vivekka had shut the door. They were the last ones to get on. As Mathavan allowed Vivekka to go ahead of him into their usual compartment they saw Winthya sitting in between Stephanie and Manoj on one of the seats and saw Vivian, Manega, Lily and Arun sitting on the seats opposite them and their muted laughter increased as Mathavan walked in. He figured that they all must have witnessed his collision with Winthya's suitcase.

"Winthya mate, next time I'll just prefer a hello," Mathavan said light-heartedly.

"I'm s-s-ssss..." she started but couldn't finish what she tried to say as humorous laughter got the better of her.

"Vithiyaa this is our little group of friends at Hogwarts. You know most of the guys already. But this is Stephanie and this is Lily. Girls this is my sister, Vithiyaa."

"Hello," said Vithiyaa looking from Stephanie to her cousin.

"Hi Vithiyaa," said Stephanie to her cousin.

"Hey!" said Lily excitedly. "I've been wanting to meet you for ages. I've heard so much! Are you looking forward to Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Yeah," Vithiyaa replied nodding nervously.

"Now that all the introductions are over can we play sticks now please?" squealed Vivekka.

"Vivekka, you squawk just like Rathika," said Manega.

"Squawk?" asked Arun looking at her and then looked around confused.

"Yeah squawk. It's the sound Rathika makes."

Mathavan laughed.

"I'm definitely going to enjoy being around you this year Manega."  
>"Erm...sticks!" asked Vivekka impatiently.<p>

"Alright already. I'll get the deck out!" said Winthya as if she was fed up with her sister.

"No! No! We need sticks to play sticks!" Vivekka stated in the same tone of voice.

"Oh yeah.." admitted her older sister quietly.

All nine of them got up and made their way to the food trolley compartment. They opened the door to their destined compartment and found that Paulina Malfoy was already at the trolley.

"Hey girl!" Stephanie called out animatedly.

Paulina turned arouned and looked from Vithiyaa to Vivekka to Arun and then, smiled in doing so, to Stephanie.

"Steph! Hiya!"

After they hugged as Stephanie broke out of the crowd, Paulina left the compartment towards the Slytherin end of the train.

"Since when did you get to know Paulina Malfoy?" asked Manoj sounding slightly displeased as Winthya, Vithiyaa, Vivekka and Arun went up to the trolley at the same time to buy sweets.

"I can be friends with anyone I want," she retorted.

"Yeah...," Manoj said awkwardly. "I know."

"Good. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is that we're not playing sticks at this very moment," Vithiyaa heard Vivekka whisper to herself.

"She's a Slytherin. We never get along with them."

"Paulina's not like the other Slytherins. She's kind, unselfish and considerate."

"Okay cool, there's no problem," Manoj quickly replied as Arun, Vithiyaa, Vivekka and Winthya had finished with purchasing their sweets.

"Good," concluded Stephanie.

Mathavan sensed the tension in the air and broke it by leading the group to their compartment.

As Vivekka sat down she looked as if she had lost some of the excitement that she had before they left to buy sweets. But that didn't mean she didn't want to still play. They played sticks as usual with Mathavan's trademark girlish squeals. Vithiyaa lost five games in a row and was on 'stick' but hung on. She was grateful for her brother as he had a part to play in her still being in the game as he seemed to always slide a candy stick towards her before grabbing one for himself. His squeals every time he fought for the last candy stick made all of them laugh and this would make him win the stick as they wouldn't have enough energy in their hands to hold on while laughing although Arun gave him a good game of tug of war.

As the Hogwarts Express neared its destination the boys naturally let the girls change into their robes first and made their way to the food trolley compartment. As soon as they slid the door open they saw Clement, Scorpius, Kirisanth and Romesh whip around as fast as they could to face them. Kiri reached for his wand glaring at Mathavan but Vivian was too quick for him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled and his four companions followed and before they knew what hit them the Slytherins had been jinxed into paralysis.

"They make such ugly statues," Vivian said laughing as they walked past the frozen Slytherins. They filled their pockets with sweets and went back to their compartment to get changed as the girls, who had finished changing, wanted their pockets filled. The train finally stopped and the students were leaving the train. Hagrid had to unfreeze Clement, Scorpius, Kirisanth and Romesh. They all stormed off the train ungratefully moaning to themselves leaving a bewildered and slightly amused. Vithiyaa and Manega were being taken up to the Hogwarts castle in boats across the Black Lake with their fellow first-years lead by Hagrid while the rest of them were approaching the castle in carriages that pulled themselves.

Ten minutes later Vithiyaa and Manega stood in the line of first-years and were eagerly waiting to be sorted into houses.

"I don't think I'd mind being in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," said Manega. "Anything but Slytherin will do for me really."

"I want to be in Gryffindor," replied Vithiyaa. "Or Ravenclaw because Stephanie's in ht."

Arun, Lily, Manoj, Mathavan, Vivekka, Vivian and Winthya were sat down next to each other on either side of the Gryffindor table while Stephanie was sitting behind Mathavan on the Ravenclaw table. Mathavan leaned back far enough so that she could hear his whisper.

"So there's gonna be a lot of time being spent in the library this year then."

"So there will. But try not to copy my homework so much this year. We have OWL exams at the end of the year. If you do it yourself you'll prepare yourself better for the OWLs," advised Stephanie.

"Yeah, alright Steph," he replied unconvincingly looking a little disheartened.

"But I will help you if you get stuck," she said smiling at him.

He looked into her glittering blue eyes and returned her smile.

"We will now begin the sorting," Professor McGonagall called out and placed the sorting hat on the stool. A few names were called out.

"Diglett, Nikita."

Vithiyaa raised her head so quickly at the name she heard a click in her neck. She tiptoed to get a better look at the front and surely enough she saw the girl she was relieved to see the back of on the last day of her previous school.

"She went to my old school!" Vithiyaa whispered loudly to her cousin.

"So you have another friend at Hogwarts? That's cool!"

"No, it's not cool! She hated me at school! She's evil to me," Vithiyaa said with a worried tone of voice as Nikita put the hat on.

"Slytherin!" bellowed the hat at once.

"No surprises there," said Vithiyaa to Manega as the Slytherins congratulated and greeted her. A few minutes later Professor McGonagall was halfway through the list of first-years.

"Krypto, Manega."

"Good luck Manega," whispered Vithiyaa as her cousin started to walk to the front.

She sat on the stool nervously and took a few seconds to look at the hat before she put it on.

"Hmmm..." her cousins, Lily, Stephanie and Vivian heard the hat say.

A few moments past until the hat made up its mind.

"Gryffindor!"

Manega leapt to her feet in excitement and strolled over to a cheering Gryffindor table. Exactly ten names were called out before Professor McGonagall called out:

"Sonic, Vithiyaa."

Vithiyaa left the line of first-years and walked slowly up to the front. She looked up at the towering Professor McGonagall who looked back at Vithiyaa with apparent content excitement. Mathavan's sister sat on the stool and tried to find her brother on the Gryffinfor table with her eyes. She saw him smiling at her. The Sorting Hat fell over her eyes as she placed it on her head. The hat took only a few seconds to make its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"


	6. Chapter 6: Three's not a crowd

CHAPTER SIX: THREE IS DEFINITELY NOT A CROWD

"Thiviya come on! We're gonna be late for the train!" shouted out Winthya through the open door in the back of Aunty Radha's car.

"Yeah. That means no sticks!" called out Vivekka who was sitting next to her older sister.

"Hold on! I'm just making sure I've got all of my Wudu dolls!" they heard Thiviya call back from their Aunty's house.

A minute later Thiviya came running out of the house swinging the front door closed dragging her suitcase behind her. She jumped into the back seat next to Vivekka after putting her suitcase on the formerly vacant front passenger seat. Aunty Radha took off as soon as Thiviya swung her car door shut.

"Yay! My first day at Hogwarts is finally here! And I'm going! Yay!" shouted Thiviya in excitement.

"This year is going to be hectic," admitted Winthya but neither of her sisters seemed to take notice of what she had just said.

"I'm going to miss my jay bear," said Vivekka absent-mindedly.

"But he said he'd write every other day didn't he?" asked her older sister.

"Yep! And he better!" she said looking worried.

Meanwhile on the other side of London, Manega and Rathika were in their dad's car on their way to King's Cross Station.

"So Lily and Fred are in Gryffindor and they are Stephanie's cousins but she's in Ravenclaw?" asked Rathika.

"Yup," replied Manega.

"Which one is going out with Mathavan again?" Rathika asked quietly so that her parents wouldn't be able to hear. "Lily or Stephanie?"

"Stephanie. And we think there's something going on between Lily and Manoj," said Manega.

"Who are 'we'?"

"Me, Vivekka, Vithiyaa and Vivian but Winthya says we're imagining things."

But Rathika didn't seem to be listening as she was gazing with her eyes fixed on one point of the window.

"I can't wait to meet everyone," she finally said to break the silence.

Back across the other side of London a couple of minutes ahead of where Radha Aunty's car had stopped at traffic lights Vivian and Priya were sitting in the back of their dad's car.

"Are we there yet?" asked Priya.

"I reckon we'll get there in about twenty minutes," suggested Vivian as he looked around at where in London they were outside the windows.

"Did you say Professor McGonagall was the strictest teacher?"

"Yeah. But Professor Cresswell can be strict too. But as long as you stay in their good books you'll be fine," explained Vivian although Priya didn't seem convinced at all and remained deeply concerned.

"But you said Professor McGonagall gave you detention on the first day."

"Yes but that's because I was poking Vivekka in the middle of the Great Hall in front of the whole school."

Priya looked a little relieved after hearing this because she knew she wasn't going to put a foot out of line especially on her first day of school.

"Dude we're early again!" Arun complained having followed his older brother through a brick wall to walk on to platform nine and three quarters as he looked up at the time on the large analog clock at the platform.

"Dude, earliness shows that we're punctual," Manoj replied wisely.

"Ah shut up and get on the train," said Arun laughing.

"Ahh the mudbloods have arrived."

Arun and Manoj turned to see not Clement or Scorpius but Kirisanth Pacman and Romesh Axel.

"That's the first time I've ever heard you speak," Arun said to Romesh. "I guess you've got to take your chance while Clement's not around to hold your tongue eh?"

Romesh studied Arun for a few seconds.

"We may be Slytherins but we're not his stooges," said Kiri.

"They why are you always tagging along behind him?" asked Manoj.

This time Romesh spoke.

"I don't think that's any of your business mate."

He turned to Kiri and gave him a look that scolded him apparently for saying too much.

Mathavan and Vithiyaa had just stepped on to platform nine and three-quarters.

"Let's bounce," said Kiri and with that him and Romesh left and headed towards the Slytherin end of the train.

Mathavan's eyes followed them as he approached his cousins.

"What the hell was that about?"

"Dunno. They were being weird," said Arun.

"Weirder than usual," added Manoj.

The brothers filled Vithiyaa and Mathavan in about their encounter with Kiri and Romesh.

"That is definitely weird. Kiri said they weren't Yaxley's stooges? I wonder what that really meant," said Vithiyaa curiously.

"I know, right!" said Arun loudly as he took a seat in their usual compartment.

Lily Potter and Stephanie Delacour-Weasley entered the compartment.

"And you definitely saw Romesh looking at Kiri angrily once he blabbed?" asked Mathavan.

"Yup."

"What's everybody talking about?" asked Lily.

Manoj retold the story for a second time to Lily and Stephanie, who sat a little too close to an uncomfortable looking Mathavan. Manega, Priya, Rathika, Thiviya, Vivian and Winthya entered the carriage. As all of them took their seats in what was for the first time a fully packed compartment scooched away from Stephanie so that he didn't have to be sitting squashed next to her. She then followed him and squashed up against her boyfriend. He looked annoyed and moved away slightly but not as much as before because as much as he wanted to sit comfortable he didn't want to upset Stephanie. The expression of annoyance on his face did not go unseen as Winthya, Vivekka, Vithiyaa, Manoj, Arun and Lily all looked concerned at Mathavan. Lily and Stephanie introduced themselves to Rathika, Thiviya and Priya and vice versa.

"Sticks anyone?" asked Winthya.

"Are all of us going to go to the food compartment to get the sticks? Because that would be a struggle," said Arun.

"I've got an idea. Seeing as it's Thiviya's, Priya's and Rathika's first time on the Hogwarts Express why don't the girls go to the food trolley compartment while the guys change into our robes early?" suggested Mathavan.

"Good idea," said Manoj.

Winthya agreed and lead the other girls out of their compartment. Stephanie got up reluctantly and followed.

"What kind of stuff do you get at the food trolley?" asked Rathika.

"All sorts of different sweets of different flavours. You'll see."

They reached the food trolley compartment. Thiviya and Rathika just stopped and stared at all the sweets while Priya was already buying them. Winthya clicked her fingers in front of Thiviya's and Rathika's faces and made them realise that the contents of the food trolley were real. Viveka was bouncing on the spot on her toes and hummed a tune in a manner that wasn't so calm as she appeared to be impatiently waiting in the queue for the sweets. After all three first-years of their group bought what they wanted Lily, Manega, Stephanie, Vithiyaa, Vivekka and Winthya stepped forward to get candy sticks for 'sticks' on the train journey. They returned to their compartment after the boys finished changing.

"Did you bump into anyone unfriendly?" Arun asked Lily, who was carrying a bag full of candy sticks as she was the first to enter through the compartment door.

"Nope," Lily replied gingerly.

"Come on! Come on! We're not going to finish playing sticks!" cried out Vivekka as her feet were now trotting quickly but she was moving at a slow pace because she was taking the tiniest of steps behind her younger sister in an attempt to encourage Thiviya to find a seat quicker.

Winthya was already shuffling her pack of cards as Manega was the last girl to take her seat. Although Rathika, Priya and Thiviya were first-years and were new to the Hogwarts Express they were no strangers to spoons or sticks. Thiviya and Priya were nearly two of the first people to grab sticks once the first stick was taken. Rathika's infamous claws helped her get on of the last few spoons. Mathavan had yet again been pushing spoons in his sister's direction and as a result had to face the long nails protruding out of Rathika's claws which caused crazy girlish screams to be heard from outside of the compartment. The last two who were left playing were Winthya and Vivekka. Vivekka was on 'sti' whereas Winthya had a clean sheet. Winthya swept her sister aside to win easily and her clean sheet still remained.

"Still got it," she concluded before the boys left to let the girls change as the train was approaching Hogwarts.

"So Stephanie, how are things going between you and Mathavan?" asked Vivekka.

Stephanie contemplated Vivekka for a seconds before she answered.

"They're great. Today's the first time I've seen him since the end of last term."

"Awww," Vithiyaa heard Winthya squeal so quitely that only her, Thiviya and Rathika could hear although she averted both Vivekka's and Stephanie's eyes.

"That's good," replied Vivekka.

"Yup," said Stephanie unconvincingly.

Lily looked uneasy and looked as if she was working out a hard maths sum in her head.

"So new first-years.." Lily said quickly to change the topic of conversation. "What house would you like to be in?"

"Gryffindor," replied Thiviya and Priya together.

"I don't mind," said Rathika. "I appreciate the hat's decision."

"So she says," added Manega.

"Hey I really don't mind!" Rathika retaliated defensively.

"We believe you Rathika," Manega replied sarcastically.

Rathika made a noise that sounded like a growl and threw herself at Manega. Screaming and heavy breathing could now be heard from the both of them.

"Hey!" shouted Lily and then there was a bang.

An invisible wall appeared to be placed between Manega and Rathika and they sisters were thrown backwards away from each other.

"That's enough! Manega I expected better from you. Rathika, violence isn't the solution to anything!" shouted Lily furiously.

Thiviya, Vithiyaa, Vivekka and Winthya stood huddled looking frightened.

"She looks like a young, ginger McGonagall," whispered Vivekka.

"The resemblance is uncanny," Winthya whispered back.

"I don't think I want to meet this McGonagall person," said Thiviya worriedly.

"Now I'm going to reverse my spell and you two must promise to not fight ever again," said Lily sternly.

"I promise to not fight with Manega ever againm" Rathika said unconvincingly and when Lily turned to Manega she said something under her breath that only Priya could hear as she was closest to her. "In front of you."

Priya looked at her fellow first-year in disappointment.

"And Manega?" Lily asked loudly.

"I promise," she said truthfully.

As the train came to a halt at its destination, outside their compartment Vivian, Mathavan, Manoj and Arun were laughing. They heard footsteps approaching the compartment door. Arun, Mathavan and Vivian leapt off the train on to the platform but Manoj still standing outside the door silently laughing his head off stopped laughing as soon as he was face to face with Lily as she threw the door open.

"Do you find something funny?" Lily asked as if she knew he was there the whole time.

"Errr..." Manoj hesitated. "No."

"Why McGonagall made you Gryffindor prefect, I will never know!" Lily exclaimed and marched passed him out of the train and on to the platform.

Manoj looked on embarrassingly and helplessly as he followed her.

"Momo, can I have a word?" Lily called after Mathavan as he stopped laughing while Arun and Vivian were struggling to control themselves.

"Sure," Mathavan replied and they both held back as the rest of the girls and Manoj walked ahead and caught up with Arun and Vivian.

"I'm sorry I laughed and didn't help you okay! I know I should have showed responsibility being captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team and all."

"It's not that you loser. I wanted to talk about Stephanie," Lily's tone of voice was serious but softly quiet now. "I'm worried. You're one of my best friends and Stephanie's my cousin and I don't want to see either of you hurt."

"Okay," Mathavan replied. "Sorry to worry you so much Lily. There's nothing wrong between us. I just like a bit of space to breathe once in a while."

"See! That's the problem!" Lily pointed out. "you're not liking some of the small stuff that Stephanie does fairly often and because you're not talking to her about it you're building up all the tension inside and your releasing it in angry ways and I think it's upsetting her."

"She's getting upset?"

"I think so. You don't want that, do you?"

"Of course not."

"Then talk to her about it," Lily pleaded. "Unspoken issues can lead to unwanted sticky situations."

The wind carried the laughter from Mathavan's cousins and friends from some way ahead to their ears as the wise words of Lily slowly sank in.

"You're right. I need to talk to Stephanie. Thanks Lily," said Mathavan while smiling appreciatively.

"Any time mate," she replied.

"By the way..." began Mathavan before cutting off while diving into his own thoughts.

"Yes?" asked Lily.

"What's happening between you and Manoj?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said unconvincingly.

"Okay," Mathavan said but not believing and Lily caved into him just like she did to Winthya a few years back.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk! But you have to promise not to tell anybody!" pleaded Lily.

"Lily did I tell anyone about that time with Clement?"

Lily's cheeks suddenly reddened with embarrassment but she looked intently at Mathavan.

Exactly a year ago Arun, Manoj, Stephanie, Vivekka, Vivian and Winthya were walking up to the castle ahead of Lily who was speaking to Hagrid close to where Vithiyaa and Manega were sitting in boats with the other first-years ready to be lead up to the castle. Mathavan wasn't with either Lily or the others as he was reassuring Vithiyaa who was sitting next to Manega and two other girls in her boat about travelling over the lake.

"You won't fall in unless you hang over the edge and I know you're not stupid enough to do that," he said.  
>"Okay I'm fine now Anna! You can go now!" she said wary of other people eavesdropping on their conversation.<p>

"Okay then. I'll see you at the sorting. Enjoy the ride," he said before leaving to see Manoj and the others walk in to the light of the Hogwarts castle. He could see Lily walking quite a way ahead of him and walked quicker with the intention of catching up to her. But then he saw a group of Slytherins who had just been freed by Hagrid ahead of her turn to face Lily. The unmistakable figure of Clement Yaxley stunned Lily into paralysis. He walked closer to the motionless Lily Potter.

"This is revenge for earlier," Mathavan heard the echo of Clement's words being carried towards his ears.

Mathavan started to sprint as he saw Clement's lips meet Lily's. He did not expect that.

"Oi!" he shouted as he not got into firing range but Clement didn't budge as if he had lost all focus.

"Protego!" Mathavan yelled and Clement was thrown so far back that he collided with the wall of the castle. Lily fell backwards like a domino. Clement's companions, who Mathavan couldn't identify in the dark picked him up and ran into the castle. Mathavan released Lily from Clement's spell and she now rubbed her mouth with the sleeves of her robes vigorously while making spitting sounds.

"You alright?" he asked her through his heavy panting.

"Yeah. Thanks for your help. That was horrible," she replied.

"He's an idiot. Come on let's walk up or we'll be late for the sorting," said Mathavan.

"Yeah okay. Please don't tell anyone what happened Mathavan. I just want to pretend that never happened."

"I understand. Your secret is safe with me."

"Okay. I do trust you. I just wanted to make sure. Even though I knew you wouldn't tell anyone. I know that doesn't make sense but do you know what I'm saying?" Lily asked Mathavan in the same spot where she got kissed by Clement a year ago.

"Yeah, don't worry. I know what you mean."

"Okay. Well me and Manoj are already going out."

"What? Since when?" asked Mathavan who was taken aback by Lily's confession.

"Since two weeks after you and Stephanie started going out."

"You know..." he paused as he was briefly lost in his thoughts. "...I suspected that something was there but I wouldn't have guessed that you had been hiding it for this long. But year, don't worry you're secret's safe with me."

"Thanks Momo," she said as they walked into the Great Hall.

Lily sat down in the seat between Vivian and Vivekka and Mathavan sat between Vithiyaa and Manoj on the opposite side of the table. While Stephanie moved so that she was sitting just behind Mathavan on the Ravenclaw table, the first-years were now strolling in and Thiviya, Priya and Rathika were seen walking behind each other respectively.

"This is it! We're finally getting sorted!" Thiviya said hopping on the spot as the line of first-years came to a halt.

"I know!" replied Priya smiling.

"Okay maybe I do want to be in Gryffindor," conceded Rathika who seemed to be taking in the beautiful appearance of the Great Hall.

"Don't let Manega hear you say that," said Priya as Professor McGonagall announced that the Sorting was about to commence.

"Annabella, Annette," was the first name Professor McGonagall called out. A short girl with shiny brown hair who had her hair tied back in a ponytail sat on the stool at the front of the hall and placed the ragged sorting hat on her head. The hat contemplated her for a few seconds.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Having called out a few names, Professor McGonagall then called out a familiar name.

"Bomberman, Priya."

She walked to the front. Her face was expressionless as she tried on the hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Priya leapt up and skipped over to the Gryffindor table where she was greeted with applause and celebration and took her seat between Vithiyaa and Manega.

"Krypto, Rathika," was a name called out two minutes later. As Rathika hurried to the stool and placed the ragged, talking clothing on her head, the hat made its mind within seconds.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Rathika let out a squeal of excitement as she rushed over to the applauding Gryffindor table. After five minutes of calling out names Mathavan had the side of his head rested on his folded arms slouched on the table but was facing the front while mouthing the word 'hungry' every five seconds.

"Vulpix, Thiviya."

Thiviya made her way to the front of the hall. Mathavan didn't seem to notice who was about to be sorted. Lily reached over the table and pinched him hard on his tricep. He sat up straight and clutched his stinging tricep in one swift movement. He looked annoyed at Lily. She gestured towards the front of the hall. He looked to where Lily was gesturing and saw Thiviya putting on the Sorting Hat and then whispered, "Oh right, sorry."

The hat was on her head for a few seconds before it made up it's mind.

"GRYFFINDOR!"


	7. Chapter 7: A Peace Of Lily's Mind

A PEACE OF LILY'S MIND

"Yeah!" Thiviya said loudly with relief as she leapt up from her stool and walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"Dibiki!" squealed Vivekka and she was so excited that her hair changed from dark purple to baby blue.

After high fiving all of her friends and cousin she sat between Vivekka and Winthya. When the sorting of the last few names continued, Mathavan returned to slouching on the table. Manoj was hungry too as his stomach rumbled but he didn't give in to his stomach's aches as easily as Mathavan did. Lily shook her head at the sight of the top of Mathavan's head on the table.

Ashley Zoroark got sorted into Hufflepuff and Professor McGonagall stepped forward and raised her head to speak. "Now that the sorting is over I won't deprive you, especially Mr Sonic..."

Mathavan's head shot up, for a second time that evening, at the sound of his name which brought about a few breakouts of laughter throughout the hall. "...of food anymore. Let the feast begin. Dig in!" And with that she clapped her hands twice and a wide variety of hot food appeared in front of them.

"Oh boy!" said Mathavan loudly as his words echoed throughout the hall causing a quiet eruption of chuckles around the room.

"So what were you two talking about?" Manoj asked Lily so quietly that only she could hear looking from Mathavan to her. Mathavan had just taken a mouthful out of a chicken leg and was slowly chewing with his cheeks bulging and took no notice of Vivekka while she was staring at him with disgust as he eyed the leg piece in his hand with a deep look of hunger.

"I just wanted to see how he was coping with things at home. Vithiyaa told me about their father being admitted from the hospital," Lily lied.

"Oh right yeah," replied Manoj.

"The chicken isn't going anywhere you know!" they heard Vivekka say loudly as Mathavan took another chunk of a bite out of his chicken piece.

"Uh know. Buh um 'ungry," he managed to say even with his mouth so full.

"Ewwww!" shouted Vivekka now turning herself away so that she faced Vivian next to her.

Vivian began to laugh along with Winthya and Thiviya.

"Oh my god. I love these noodles!" said Vithiyaa.

Priya looked at her excitedly.

"They're better than the ones from the restaurants at home," she added.

"Hogwarts food is always better," admitted Manega,

"Yeah!" agreed Vithiyaa.

"Apparently its house elves who make this food," said Rathika. "I read it in my History of Magic textbook."

"You've already read the textbook?" asked Thiviya. "I haven't read anything!"

"You don't have to read your books because you're going to get taught it anyway," said Winthya. "But it does help if you do a bit of reading before the lessons."

"Now you tell me! Some big sister you turned out to be," snapped Thiviya.

"Hey! It's only your first day. Chillax dude," said Winthya.

"I'm a dudette," Thiviya corrected her sister.

"Whatever dudette," Winthya said in a tone that showed that she was hurting over the comment about her being a bad older sister.

"Look at Kiri and Romesh," whispered Arun seriously into Mathavan's ear.

He looked over at the Slytherin table to see Kiri enjoying his food next to Romesh who was picking off his chicken leg with a fork and a knife who were sitting nowhere near to Clement, Scorpius and their usual henchmen. Vivian looked up to see what Arun and Mathavan were examining.

"It looks like they've had a fight," Arun whispered.

"Or they finally realised Yaxley smells worse than Slughorn's butt," said Vivian.

"Or that," Mathavan agreed loudly amongst the laughter of his cousins and friends close by.

"It's none of our business though and it'll be a waste of time and brain cells if we ponder about the Slytherins for any longer," said Manoj.

"Here, here," Mathavan responded loudly as he raised his goblet of pumpkin juice.

"Vivee," called Vivekka.

"Yeah?" replied Vivian.

"Pass the bread loaf please."

"Okay," he said giggling sneakily and he threw what was left of the bread loaf as high as he could in the air. The loaf of bread spun in midair for a few seconds.

"Choppingo!"

A purple beam of light from Vivekka's want hit the bread and cut it into fine slices and landed softly on her golden food plate.

"Mr Bomberman and Miss Vulpix! Food isn't something to be played with and certainly shouldn't be used to show off magic. Then points will be taken from Gryffindor," Professor Slughorn said loudly.

Vithiyaa nudged Priya and gestured in the direction of the staff table. Professor Weasley usually had a pleasant look on her face whit lit up any room she entered but at that moment she looked on angrily and disappointedly at Vivian and Vivekka.

"She doesn't look pleased," said Priya.

"No," Vithiyaa agreed.

"She told me she expected to win the House Cup last year. She must've taken the loss pretty hard when Slytherin beat Ravenclaw by three hundred points to put them above us," explained Manega.

"So she's disappointed that she's into minus points before the school year's even started?" asked Rathika.

"I guess so," agreed her sister.

Vithiyaa had lost interest in what her cousins were saying as she was gazing intently at a girl on the Slytherin table. She saw Nikita point in her direction and whisper something to her friends who then laughed. Vithiyaa then remembered what her brother told her once before:

'Whether you know or don't know what's being said behind your back, a second spent worrying about it is a second of your life wasted.'

Manega's attention also diverted towards the Slytherins when Nikita pointed at Vithiyaa.

"Don't worry Vithiyaa. They're just a bunch of losers," said Manega as Nikita's friends continued to giggle.

Vithiyaa smiled.

"Yeah I know," she said cheerfully. "I don't care about what they have to say."

Manega looked at her for a few seconds and knew that Vithiyaa meant every word.

All students had finished with their enjoyable scrumptious meals apart from Mathavan who had just stuffed a sausage roll into his surprisingly spacious mouth and was reaching out for a slice of ham and mushroom quiche. Professor McGonagall stepped up to the podium at the front of the Great Hall. She clapped her hands once and all the food on the tables vanished. The slice of quiche in Mathavan's hand had also disappeared while he took a bite out of fresh air and then sobbed as he gazed at his hand in despair with his watery eyes sparkling.

"Welcome to the new first years and to those students returning, welcome back. I hope you all enjoyed the feast as much as I did and I hope your holidays were enjoyable just as mine were."

Mathavan still looked like he was about to cry. His sister, cousins, Vivian and Priya were all either putting their greatest efforts into preventing themselves from laughing or were chuckling silently.

"A new year has been brought upon us and it couldn't have come any sooner. Now, for the start-of-term notices.

"First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils hence why it is called the Forbidden Forest. Our older students would do well to remember the name of the forest mind you."

McGonagall's eyes swept the Great Hall quicker than a click of a finger.

"Mr Filch has requested me to inform you that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of things, all of which are on a list for your viewing on the door of Mr Filch's office.

"Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place during the second week of term."

Mathavan had a hungry expression on his face now which, for once, had nothing to do with food. The expression was similar to Lily's, Manoj's and Winthya's and they smiled in sync as the headmaster mentioned Quidditch.

"Those interested should contact Madam Hooch. I won't keep you any longer now. Make sure you all get a relaxing night's sleep before your first day! Good night to you all!"

McGonagall sat down again and turned to talk to Professor Weasley. There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed towards the double doors into the Entrance Hall.

"Looking forward to the tryouts guys?" Mathavan asked as he got up from his seat.

"Hell yeah!" Arun shouted.

"I don't see what you're all excited about, Rayman. The house cup will be ours again!" called out Clement Yaxley while breaking out of the crowd effortlessly so he could be seen.

"We'll see about that _Yakkie_," said Mathavan looking at him with great dislike.

"Try not to get your butts whooped by us again though," he added.

"That game didn't mean anything. We still won the house cup," Clement argued back.

"While losing to Gryffindor.." Vivian laughed after he made his point.

"Shut it, you," said Yaxley as he started towards Vivian but Mathavan moved in between.

"Got a problem with taking the truth from a younger eh?" Mathavan taunted him.

"What's going on here then?" said Hagrid loudly as he grabbed both Clement and Mathavan by the collar, one dangling from each hand. "Will yer two never learn? Fightin' won' solve nothin'. It's the firs' day back fer cryin' ou' loud!"

Mathavan just hung there from Hagrid's right hand awkwardly, keeping still and blushed as he caught Stephanie's gaze while Clement continued to struggle in mid-air.

"My father will hear about this," he said.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before yer lil' runt. Bet he won't be too pleased tha' yer causin' trouble in the middle of the Great Hall of all places.

"Now I ain' gonna give you detention terday 'specially with poor Hermi- , I mean Professor Weasley worryin' abou' bein' in minus points already." Hagrid raised his eyebrows as he turned to look at Vivian and Vivekka but returned his attention to Mathavan and Clement as soon as he'd seen the ashamed look on their faces.

"Sorry Hagrid. It won't happen again," said Mathavan.

"Good."

"In public," Mathavan muttered under his breath.

"I heard tha'! Look I'm gonna let yers two down now and I wan' yer ter apologise and go off ter yer dorms like good kids."

Hagrid placed them back on the floor and Clement looked as if he would jump off a cliff before apologising first. Mathavan smiled.

"Sorry Clement," he said confidently but without meaning it. Clement hesitated.

"Sorry...Mathavan."

And with that he stormed off towards the staircase leading down towards the Slytherin common room.

"I din't think he was gonna apologise there. Ah well, there's a firs' fer everythin' eh? Now get ter bed yeh lot! Manarj, Winthya, Lily! What're yeh still doin' here! Don't yeh have prefect duty with the firs' years?"

"Oh yeah. See ya in a bit guys. Thiviya, Priya, Rathika, come on let's go," Manoj said as he turned quickly after Lily and Winthya. "Gryffindor first years this way!" they heard Lily and Winthya call out. A blonde haired boy, who was apparently a fifth year prefect, followed them.

"Good night Hagrid!" the rest of them said to him as he headed towards the door leading to the grounds where his cabin stood.

"G'nigh!" he called back.

"Anna! Why are you always getting into fights?" asked Vithiyaa as she, Manega, Vivekka, Vivian, Arun and her brother made their way to the Gryffindor common room while Stephanie walked with them until the turn to the Ravenclaw tower came up.

"He was gonna jinx Vivian!"

"I can take care of myself," Vivian protested.

"Fair enough. I'll just be a spectator then next time, shall I?"

"But Hagrid's right, Momo. You can't fight every time you see Yaxley," Stephanie pleaded. "You're captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and you need to be a role model to those who look up to you. Besides you've enjoyed making him look like a fool enough times. Be the better man, ignore him now and just walk away."

"Well said," Vivekka whispered over her shoulder to Manega, Priya and Vithiyaa. The girls seemed to agree as they nodded their heads looking impressed.

Mathavan absorbed every word. He then started to reminisce back to when Lily's brother, James was captain. Not only did he stay out of trouble but he never sought a fight nor did he even confront those who were rude to him. Zabini and Montague the former and current Slytherin captains during Mathavan's and Manoj's time at Hogwarts always were in detention for starting something or other.

Manega started to giggle and gestured at Mathavan to her cousins who then copied her. Mathavan had a confused expression on his face with his eyebrows contracted, his nose scrunched up and his mouth slightly ajar and was completely oblivious to the giggles echoing around the corridor.

"You're right Stephanie. I have to change for the better."

"You don't have to change completely," said Vivekka. "Just don't be angry."

Mathavan laughed.

"Okay. Thanks guys. I really needed that," he said appreciatively.

They approached the staircase leading to the Ravenclaw Tower.

"Have a good night everyone," said Stephanie while starting to walk backwards up the stairs waving down at the others.

"Hold on. I'll come up with you. I'll see you guys in the morning okay?" Mathavan told them.

"Awww," squeaked Vivekka quietly to herself at Mathavan's decision to accompany Stephanie.

"Sure thing mate," said Arun. "Good night!"

The others bid them farewells before continuing to their common room.

Meanwhile Albus Potter, who was the newly appointed head boy of Hogwarts, was leading the single file of Gryffindor first-years to their dormitories. The prefects were equally spaced out so that two or three first-years were equipped with each prefect. Winthya was walking next to Thiviya and a rather chubby dark haired boy, Manoj next to Rathika, a blonde girl and a brown haired boy and Lily next to Priya and a small oriental boy. The blonde haired fifth year prefect was accompanying two kids at the back of the line while newly appointed head girl, Rawfiah Charizard, was walking with three first-years.

"So Priya, I spoke to McGonagall and we were able to arrange the sharing of dormitories so that me, you, Vithiyaa, Winthya and another first year, Hayley Longbottom, are all in one room. How does that sound?" whispered Lily.

"That sounds great! Thanks Lily," replied Priya.

"Don't mention it. If you ever need anything don't hesitate to ask me okay? We're roomies now," Lily said beaming filling Priya with confidence in her.

"Okay Lily. I won't," Priya replied smiling back.

Albus, the blonde-haired fifth year and Manoj lead the boys to their dormitories while Rawfiah, Lily and Winthya did the same with the girls. Thiviya, Rathika, Priya and Hayley Finnigan, who had beautiful, shiny, curly blonde hair that sat perfectly on her shoulders, were the last girls left to be shown to their rooms.

"Okay Hayley and Priya, this is our room," said Winthya as she unlocked the door with her want and opened it to find Vithiyaa unpacking.

"Hello," she said smiling enthusiastically as she was storing her textbooks onto the shelf above her bed.

"Hey," said Priya happily entering.

Hayley's "Hi," was barely audible. She was looking nervous and shy.

"Make yourselves feel right at home and I'll be back as soon as I sign out of prefect duty," said Winthya before she closed the door and left to join Lily in showing Rathika and Thiviya, who were sharing with Vivekka, Manega and Rawfiah, to their room.

"Vithiyaa this is Hayley. Hayley, Vithiyaa," said Priya.

"Hey Hayley. I'm in my second year. You must be looking forward to tomorrow. Even I am. I love it here."

"Yes my parents speak very highly about Hogwarts. I must say I'm pleased to have received the invitation," revealed Hayley.

Soon enough Hayley warmed up to Vithiyaa and Priya before Winthya and Lily joined them shortly after and they all got to know Hayley more and did everything they could to make her feel that Hogwarts was her second home just like it was for them.

In the other room Rawfiah had just returned from prefect duty to find Vivekka, Thiviya, Manega and Rathika all in their beds although fully awake.

"Hey!" and "Hi there," were the calls from the occupants of the beds.

"Hi," said Rawfiah dully in a bored voice.

"Umm..I'm Vivekka. Over there is Thiv.." but she got interrupted.

"Look I didn't ask to be here okay!" exclaimed Rawfiah. "You'd think being head girl and all that I would have my own room but obviously not. And now I have to share with a bunch of troublemakers who get Gryffindor into minus points at the start of the year. Talk about a great welcome to Hogwarts." Rawfiah paused to glare at Vivekka who looked stunned more than anything.

"I'm sorry." Vivekka's apology came out as a whisper.

"I don't want to hear it," Rawfiah retorted. "I just want to go to sleep."

She walked over to her bed and leapt into it pulling the covers over her and an awkward silence filled the room.

Vivekka thought about the look Professor Weasley gave her when Slughorn took the points from Gryffindor and then thought about what Rawfiah had said. She knew she made the mistake as soon as Slughorn had punished her and Vivian and had been regretting her actions ever since. 'Why am I still being punished?' she thought to herself. But then she heard a voice in her head.

"Vivekka?"

'This is weird' she thought.

"It's Lily and yeah I know it's weird but I can communicate with people I know telepathically."

"Wow Lily! That is uber cool!"

"I know right?"

"So can you read people's minds?"

"No I can't. It's hard to explain why not but I can only have conversations with people. How are you doing?"

"Umm...I'm okay I guess."

"Hey listen, Professor Weasley is just worried that her eldest son hasn't got a job yet. Yeah she is a little worried about Gryffindor being in minus points but she'll get over that because she knows that once we started winning Quidditch matches it wouldn't even matter. So don't worry," Lily explained

"That's not even the half of it though," thought Vivekka and she went on to explain about what happened with Rawfiah.

"Ahh don't listen to her, Bubbles. She's just being an idiot. She'll come around, I know she will. I've spoken to her a couple of times over the years and she's alright really. She's probably just going through a frough patch and needs time to calm down. Listen you have nothing to worry about, trust me. Don't let what anyone says get you down. You know you're mistake so just forget about it now. It's not even a big deal. You've got more important things to worry about like you're OWL exams at the end of the year!"

"You're right. I hear you Lily. Thanks a lot."

"No problemo. I'm pretty beat now so I'm going to get some sleep. I'll see you down at breakfast. Good night Bubbles."

"Good night Lily!" and with that Vivekka fell into a peaceful slumber.

Manoj unlocked the door to his dormitory to find Arun and Vivian sitting on their beds conversing in full flow.

"But what about when the wind's blowing and the bludger diverts into your path?" asked Vivian.

"That's when your reflexes come into place. Dodge it. Duck or fly over it. You have to be quick if you want to be a good Chaser," advised Arun.

"Where's Mathavan?" asked Manoj.

"Where else would he be?" Arun asked back.

"Stephanie?"

"Yup."

"I wonder how he doesn't get seen by anyone in the Ravenclaw Tower," speculated Vivian aloud.

"Lily lets him borrow her invisibility cloak and it works like a charm," said Manoj smiling.

"I thought you enjoyed Yaxley being jinxed," said Mathavan sitting on the comfortable couch in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room snuggled up with Stephanie under the invisibility cloak in front of the lilac flames burning in the fireplace.

"I found it funny when we were young. Now it's just getting old and out of hand," Stephanie complained.

"Alright keep your hair on, I was just saying. Don't worry I'll just ignore him from now on. And be the better man," he replied.

"You better," she whispered tiredly resting her head on his shoulder.

"Stephanie I need to talk to you about something," Mathavan said urgently.

"Well, what is it?"

"I don't mind...," he said slowly. "...us getting all close and stuff when we're alone. But I feel uncomfortable when you sit right up next to me in front of the others."

"Why? We're in love aren't we?" she asked dreamily.

Mathavan cringed at the word 'love'.

"Aren't we?" she asked again more seriously.

"Err yeah, sure," he said quickly and unconvincingly. "But I just.."

"You just what?" she asked a little angrily and lifting her head up and loosening her grip around his shoulders.

"Stephanie I like being with you and love spending time with you. You're a great girl. But I'm not the touchy, feely type of guy. And I don't like going back to the Gryffindor common room when everyone's asleep."

"I didn't ask you to come up with me tonight," said Stephanie sternly.

"But it's what you wanted. You used to complain last year. Look, if you were in Gryffindor things would be much..."

"Well I'm in Ravenclaw," she interrupted.

"Yes...I know.." said Mathavan and now he didn't know what to say.

An awkward silence filled the room. After what felt like hours of no one speaking Stephanie lifted the cloak up and got up from the couch.

"We can't be a couple if we want different things. I guess this is it. Good night Mathavan." Stephanie rushed up the stairs leading to her dormitory

"Err..good night Stepha-" and before Mathavan could finish Stephanie closed the door of her room.


	8. Chapter 8: Professor Weasley's favour

PROFESSOR WEASLEY'S FAVOUR

Thiviya stirred and pulled her large, warm quilt even tighter around herself.

"Thiviya…," Rathika whispered.

"Hmm?" Thiviya responded with a deep, lazy sound once she had realised Rathika's voice wasn't a dream.

"It's time to get up."

"Five more minutes," Thiviya pleaded lazily.

"You said that fifteen minutes ago."

Thiviya waited for a few moments before she decided what she was going to do. She got up and sat over the edge of her bed. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw Vivekka lying still in her bed with her mouth open. She watched the saliva on her sister's cheek slowly drip onto the pillow.

"Ewwww...Vivekka get up!" Thiviya ordered as Rathika and Manega laughed. "We need to eat breakfast before class!"

Vivekka still remained motionless although her left eyelid flickered and the very slight movement did not go unseen.

"Vivekka if you don't get up this instant I'm going to poke you continuously and it will hurt!" threatened Manega.

"Okay no poking!" squealed Vivekka as she too sat up in her bed instantly.

"Are you okay after what the head girl said last night?" Manega asked her.

"Of course," Vivekka replied at once. "I mean I know I've upset a few people, even though it wasn't only me, but I'll apologise to anyone who talks to me about it and if they have negative things to say about me, I'll just let them pass right through me," she explained confidently.

"You go girl," said Rathika.

"Yeah good on you," said Manega proudly.

Vivekka smiled and at that moment she really appreciated those who were close to her.

"I'm gonna go to the Owlery and send a letter to Jay Bear," she said as she dressed quickly after cleansing herself with magic. I'll meet you down at the Great Hall for breakfast. Don't be late!" and she hurried out of their dormitory excitedly.

Before she made her way downstairs she listened carefully at the door of the dormitory opposite theirs but heard silence. Disappointed at hearing nothing, she rushed off down the stairs and to the West Tower where the Owlery was situated.

Meanwhile in the dormitory opposite theirs, Vithiyaa, Priya and Hayley were already in their school robes talking quietly to each other while Lily was looking in the mirror at her hair automatically tying itself back. Winthya was still in bed.

"Winthya you have to wake up now. Lessons start in just over an hour and we've got to eat and get our timetables," said Lily slightly annoyed.

"Okay, okay. I'm up, I'm up...," Winthya replied pulling her quilt off slowly.

"So who's that blonde prefect in your year?" asked Lily.

"Oh his name's Frankie Finnigan."

"Finnigan?" enquired Priya.

"Well, yeah," responded Winthya.

Priya looked around at Hayley.

"Did I not mention? I have a brother in the fifth year," stated Hayley.

"No, you did not," said Vithiyaa chuckling. "Do you have any more secret family relatives at the school?"

"No, not that I know of," replied Hayley.

Winthya was ready only a few moments later and they left to go to the common room downstairs where they met Thiviya, Rathika and Manega.

"Wow you girls are up early," said Lily as she led the girls in her dormitory downstairs.

"Or you girls are late," said Rathika.

"Any sign of the guys yet?" asked Winthya.

"Nope," said Manega. "You know how slow they are in the mornings," she added.

Mathavan was the last of the boys to awaken.

"I'm surprised you're still in bed Mathavan. Did you not feel up to taking a morning stroll to the Ravenclaw Tower?" asked Manoj as he took notice of his cousin opening his eyes at the sound of Arun's lecture on Quidditch tips to Vivian.

"Not really. We broke up," Mathavan croaked.

Arun stopped talking as both he and Vivian turned to face Mathavan.

"What?" enquired Manoj, not knowing what else to say.

"Stephanie and me; we broke up. We're not together any more."

"Dude I know what a break up is. I'm sorry to hear that," said Manoj.

"Yeah," agreed Arun sympathetically. "What happened?"

"We just wanted different things. I just wasn't the lovey-dovey guy she wanted me to be. And she..." Mathavan paused to think about what to say about Stephanie. "She just isn't the one for me."

"How are you feeling?" asked Vivian.

"I'm okay actually," he replied truthfully. "I saw it coming, but I just didn't know when it was going to happen. I didn't know how to end it. I still have total respect for Stephanie and I don't mean to sound like such an idiot but it's a whole weight off my shoulders now that it's over. A whole weight that was getting annoyingly heavier the longer we were together. But I don't think she expected us to break up. She'll be alright though after a while," he said optimistically. "...hopefully. Anyways I'm hungry. Let's go down to eat!"

"Good call," Arun concurred as he leapt up off of his bed.

As soon as they were ready, they joined the girls in the common room.

"Late as usual," said Lily. "Seriously, what was McGonagall thinking when she made you a prefect?" she asked rhetorically looking annoyed at Manoj who was slightly taken aback.

'She couldn't have said that to me telepathically, could she?' Manoj asked himself as he stepped through the Gryffindor portrait along with the others.

'No she couldn't,' he heard Lily's voice say in his head. He looked ahead over Vivekka's shoulder to try and get a better view of Lily. She turned her face to the side so she could just about see him out of the corner of her eye and put on a mockingly devious smile.

'Now your dear family will have it in the back of their minds to make sure that you're early enough for breakfast to be on time for lessons because you're a prefect and you need to be a good example for others to follow,' she reminded him, and not for the first time.

'Yeah I know. Sorry. I'll take it more seriously from now on,' he thought honestly.

'Good, good. I wonder what lessons we have today,' said Lily in a lighter tone of voice.

"Oh yeah!" Manoj exclaimed animatedly. "Mathavan we're gonna have free periods!"

"What? Oh yeah! Only five subjects now!" replied Mathavan just as excited.

"What are you guys taking? When do you decide what to take?" asked Winthya seriously.

"Well basically either Professor Weasley or McGonagall will have a careers advice interview with you around the middle of the year and they talk to you about what you want to do once you've finished school and give you advice on what subjects to do according to what career you want to go in to," explained Lily.

"I want to be a healer and Mathavan and Lily want to be aurors," said Manoj. "But luckily both of those careers require the same five subjects at N.E.W.T level: Herbology, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration and Defence."

"Cool!" said Winthya.  
>"What do you wanna be after you finish school?" asked Thiviya.<p>

"I'm not sure yet," replied her eldest sister. "I'll need time to think and consider all of the options."

"By the way girls," started Vivian. "Mathavan has something to tell you all." He turned to Mathavan who just looked at him in a weird way.

"Well you were going to tell them sooner or later," protested Vivian.

"Fair enough. Me and Stephanie broke up last night," he said and went on to tell them exactly what happened that night as they approached the Great Hall.

"Poor Stephanie," said Winthya. Mathavan's insides clenched at Winthya's words as he remembered Stephanie insulting her once before and was sure that if Stephanie were in Winthya's position, she wouldn't be feeling the same.

"Yeah. Don't worry Momo, I'll make sure she's alright," said Lily.

"Thanks," he said.

Vivekka was now making her way down the last staircase leading to the Great Hall and was in a cheerful mood as she always was when she sent off a letter to her boyfriend in the muggle world. She skipped the last step and aimed to leap onto the ground of the Entrance Hall but landed onto a taller student who, in the process of falling over, shoved his friend in a failed attempt to keep balance who also landed on the floor.

"What the hell?" Kiri asked as he pushed Vivekka from on top of him.

"Oops. Sorry! I didn't mean to...I didn't know you were there," she pleaded.

"Well I was!" retorted Kiri as he pulled himself up. He looked around for his friend and eventually saw Romesh on the floor against the wall, rubbing his head, looking at Kiri angrily.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Kiri asked him.

"You pushed me, you freak of nature!" Romesh yelled.

"What? No I didn't," Kiri insisted as he held out a hand to help his friend up.

"Yes you did, you idiot! Do you think I like lying on the floor against walls?"

"You did push him. I saw it as I fell. You tried to stay standing so you pushed Romesh over. Are you okay Romesh?" asked Vivekka considerately.

"Errr...yeah...I am. Thanks," said Romesh brushing off the dust from his robes.

"Sorry mate," said Kiri.

Vivekka awkwardly but silently walked off into the Great Hall and secretly giggled to herself at what had just happened. She walked passed Professor Weasley on the way to the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning Miss Vulpix."

"Good morning Professor."

"I hope you aren't feeling too bad about yesterday; Just don't let it happen again. And let Mr Bomberman know that too, will you?"

"I understand Professor. I'll tell him."

"Do enjoy your first day!"

"Thank you and the same to you!" Vivekka called out to her as she took her seat looking fervently at the stack of toasts.

She was shortly joined by Lily, Vivian, Priya and the rest of her cousins.

"Oh yeah! Sausages and bacon!" shouted Mathavan.

"Shh Anna! People are looking!" scolded Vithiyaa.

"Vithiyaa who isn't going to think I'm a pig after McGonagall pointed me out in front of the school yesterday?" he asked.

"I know but still – you could have some self-control."

"Fair point that," Mathavan reasoned while grabbing a few sausages and putting them onto his plate.

"Oh yeah Vivee, Professor Weasley said to not let anything like yesterday happen again," Vivekka told him.

"Oh right okay. No worries."

"So Arun, are you looking forward to fourth year?" asked Winthya.

"Yeah definitely," he answered as he high-fived his fellow classmate Fred Weasley as he passed to take a seat further down the Gryffindor table as they were hardly any spaces free now. "It's the last year before having real exams. I better make the most of it."

Winthya looked a little disappointed. "Yeah, that's true."

"Actually no it isn't," said Manoj. "You still have to work hard so that you do well in your end of year exams Arun. If you don't then when you do your OWLs revision is going to be a lot harder."

Before Arun could say anything to back up his case Lily injected her view on the matter.

"Manoj has a point you know."

"Fair enough," Arun conceded forcefully.

"Oh look. Our timetables have arrived!" shouted Vithiyaa.

A sheet of paper with a table filled with a weekly schedule of each student's subjects suddenly appeared in front of every one of them apart from the sixth-years.

"Hey! Where're our timetables?" asked Mathavan loudly.

"Oh yeah. My brother told me that we have to confirm our subjects with our head of houses and we'll get handed our timetables today," explained Lily.

"Hayley look we've got Defence Against the Dark Arts first with Professor Cresswell and we're with the Hufflepuffs," said Priya.

"I can't wait," said Rathika.

"Don't get on the wrong side of Cresswell, Priya. There's no telling to what he'll do as punishment," Vivian warned her sarcastically.

"He's not that bad," said Vithiyaa. "Yeah, Professor Cresswell is stricter than the rest of the teachers but he's nice if you're in his good books."

"What lesson do you have first Manega?" asked Rathika.

"Care of Magical Creatures. Why do we have to go outside first thing in the morning? It's going to be freezing."

"It shouldn't be too bad," said Vithiyaa positively looking up at the ceiling of the Great Hall squinting at the sun shining brightly.

Thiviya looked around the hall and could see sixth years talking to their heads of houses at the end of each table one by one. Stephanie was talking to Professor Flitwick and didn't seem fine at all. Her hair was messily let down, her nose was red and her eyes were puffy but seemed to be telling Flitwick that nothing was wrong. Thiviya looked over at Mathavan who seemed to be enjoying his breakfast and didn't want to take away that good mood so didn't trouble him with the news. She felt nervous but in a good way as she was looking forward to starting her first lesson in Hogwarts.

"Momo when are the trials for the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" she asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I guess I can talk that over with Professor Weasley when I see her about the timetable."

"Lily Potter," called Professor Weasley.

"See you guys in a bit," Lily said as she got up to go to the front of the table.

Lily wasn't with Professor Weasley for long and came back with her timetable in her hand.

"That was quicker than I thought it'd be," she said relieved.

"What did she ask you?" asked Manoj.

"She just looked at my O.W.L grades and confirmed that I've passed the subjects that I need to study for N.E.W.T level."

"Manoj Rayman."

"Good luck."

Manoj walked up slowly towards his head of house uneasily.

"Good morning, Professor Weasley."

"Top of the morning to you, Manoj. Now you're down for Defence; you got an Outstanding for your Defence O.W.L so that's fine. Yes I have to say I'm pleased with your Transfiguration mark; Outstanding again and I'm more than happy to accept you into my N.E.W.T class. And you achieved Outstanding in Herbology and Potions which are also fine and Exceeds Expectations in Charms which means..." She tapped the piece of blank paper in her hand which automatically had a timetable of Manoj's weekly lessons written on it. "...you're all good to go," said Professor Weasley handing the timetable to him. He took it gleefully.

"Thanks professor."

"You're very welcome. Can you send Mr Sonic over please?"

"Sure professor."

"Mathavan, Weasley wants to see you now."

"Thanks man," said Mathavan and made his way to the front of the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning Mathavan."

"G'morning Professor."

"Hmm...So an Outstanding in Defence Against the Dark Arts gives you automatic clearance to do the subject at N.E.W.T level. And you achieved Exceeds Expectations in Charms, Potions and Transfiguration. Now Transfiguration at N.E.W.T Level is a lot tougher than O.W.L so you'll need to work harder than you are at the moment if you want to achieve a satisfactory mark."

"Yes Professor. I understand," he said with a concerned tone of voice.

"Having said that, there is a little snag. You got an Acceptable in Herbology and Professor Longbottom requires at least an Exceeds Expectations to continue his subject at N.E.W.T level. However I understand how the career path of an auror is your choice for the future and I've had a word with Professor Longbottom. He said he was exceptionally pleased with your practical work at the end of last year and given that you passed well in your other four subjects both I and he have agreed that it would only be unfair to let a few marks end your career as an auror and to let you continue studying Herbology at N.E.W.T level."

"Thanks a lot, Professor."

"You need not mention it. As your head of house I'll do everything in my power to aid the students of Gryffindor in any way possible. Promise me that you'll work hard and prove that I haven't made a wrong decision."

"I promise Professor. Thanks very much."

"Good. Now before I forget; I believe the Quidditch pitch is available to use this Saturday."

"Oh that's great. Quidditch trials!"

"Yes. So I will book the pitch for Saturday and will put up an advertisement on the notice board in the common room. A handful of students have already put down their names and I shall give you a full list of candidates prior to the trials on Saturday. Do pick a good team this year."

"Okay. I won't let you down Professor," Mathavan said enthusiastically. He was extremely excited about playing Quidditch again and was thrilled at the prospect of captaining the Gryffindor team.

"I hope you don't. You better get off to your first lesson and take the rest of your rather large horde with you."


	9. Chapter 9: First Lessons

FIRST LESSONS

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Cresswell.

"Wow. I don't know what Bin Bin was talking about. She said he was handsome. He's got so many cuts and bruises on his face. And look at his mouth!" whispered Thiviya to Rathika and Priya who had a table to themselves as a few whispers broke out across the class at the sudden appearance of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"I SAID SETTLE DOWN!" he roared. His face was contorted with rage as silence filled the classroom.

"That's better," he said softly and smiled now at Thiviya. "I do apologise that I'm not Prince Charming. War does stuff to ya. But you'll have to make do with me for five years; Seven years if you're good enough."

Thiviya sat there stunned with widened eyes wishing she hadn't said anything at all.

"My name is Professor Cresswell and as you all know this class is Defence Against the Dark Arts. In this class you'll be learning about all sorts of dark creatures, dark magic and how to defend yourselves against them. Courage is needed in these lessons as most of you won't have dreamt about some of the things you'll come across in these classes even in your worst nightmares."

A few gasps were heard from around the class. Priya had a worried look on her face while Thiviya and Rathika continued to stare at Professor Cresswell intriguingly.

"For those of you who are afraid, if it makes you feel any better I'll be telling you a few curses and jinxes and I'll be giving you tips on how to defend against anything taught in this class. Plus everyone in the school has to learn this stuff so you're not alone."

A few students in the class remained nervous but Priya seemed to be relieved.

"But today I'm not going to teach you anything horrifying. Just the simplest of spells: The Disarming Spell. Using this spell will disarm the wand from your opponent. It's as simple as that. I wouldn't advise you to use it in a life or death situation but if someone's about to use a hex on you in the school corridors using this spell won't cause any harm and will not only get that person who was about to use the hex in detention but it'll keep you out of it because you'll be judged to be only defending yourself. But if you use it to bully people then you'll be put into detention because that just ain't nice."

A few giggles were heard from around the class and Thiviya, Rathika and Priya were all listening intently to Professor Cresswell.

"Here's the incantation. Repeat after me." The whole class were now paying attention to their teacher's every word.

"Ex-pell-i-ar-mus" he said slowly.

Priya was the only one in the class who repeated the disarming incantation correctly.

"Expelliarmibus," said Thiviya but there were more crazy incantations being said around the room.

"Oh boy. This is going to take a while," Professor Cresswell said to himself before making sure every student in the class could say the incantation properly.

However outside the castles but within the grounds of Hogwarts, Hagrid was teaching a Care of Magical Creatures lesson to the Gryffindor and Slytherin second-years. Vithiyaa and Manega stood with their fellow Gryffindors while a gap separated them from the Slytherins. Nikita took a second's glance at Vithiyaa, who smirked to herself and leaned towards the girl next to her but before she could speak, Hagrid interrupted.

"Alrigh' now class. I've go' a real surprise fer yeh terday."

Groans were heard from the Slytherins which Hagrid did not apparently hear but resulted in angry looks from Vithiyaa, Manega and their friends.

"I know I din' show yer anythin' dangerous in yer firs' year," Hagrid started.

Vithiyaa snorted and Manega forcefully, but quietly, cleared her throat. In their very first Care of Magical Creatures lesson he brought in a fully grown dragon that was named Norberta into class. A friend of Hagrid's called Charlie Weasley was also present during that lesson because it was him who brought Norberta into the country from Romania where he works with dragons. She was very beautiful but fierce looking and was friendly until she saw Hagrid's dog, Fang, whom she tried to eat. When Charlie and Hagrid made it clear that she couldn't eat Fang she got angry and set Hagrid's hut on fire and had to be taken away.

Cute squeaking noises could now be heard coming from a box-like shape covered by a cloak.

"..and second year's gonna be no differen'. Now I come to think on it, lads you migh' not enjoy these so much buh girls yer gonna love em."

He then removed the cloak. Almost all the girls, both Slytherin and Gryffindor, made the same sound.

"Awwwwww!"

About twenty small creatures which resembled pink and purple fluffy balls were rolling around in the cage squeaking.

"It's funny cos d'ya 'member Charlie Weasley? Well his brother George leant me these from his shop. Now can anyone tell me what these are?"

"They're Pygmy Puffs," Manega called out.

"Yes they are. And does anyone know their original breed name?"

It was Manega who responded first again.

"Puffskein. Pygmy Puffs are miniature Puffskeins but only have the colours pink and purple where as Puffskeins are usually yellow or green hence way the name Pygmy Puff was used to name them as they are physically different although they act similarly."

"Well done Manega. Twenty points to Gryffindor!"

"Twenty!" spat Nikita out loud.

"Well yeah," said Hagrid. "Could yeh have given me an answer that good?"

"Errr..."

"Exactly," he pointed out.

"But all she does is read books!" retorted Nikita loudly as if this was a valid point to make.

"Maybe you should try it some time," said Manega quietly.

The Gryffindor boys in the class laughed wildly at Manega's comment. Nikita was furious. She hated being mocked.

"What did you say?" Her temper was rising.

"Well she's got a poin' yer know. If yeh wanna avoid gettin' the grades yeh got last year yeh migh' wanna try openin' a book or two," Hagrid intervened.

Nikita looked so angry that she was close to tears. She quietened down after Hagrid's telling off and stood behind her friends from Slytherin as Hagrid motioned to open the Pygmy Puffs' cage.

Meanwhile in the castle on the third floor, Professor Flitwick was teaching the third-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. The task he set was to levitate the many cushions each student was given onto a neat pile onto Professor Flitwick's desk at the front of the classroom. There was a fair bit of messing around going on, particularly from Vivian but as he had been present at enough detentions for causing trouble in his first two years at Hogwarts he was wary about getting caught. He levitated his cushion as he was told to but in the process of sending it to the front of the room he would make sure his knocked someone else's cushion in front of his out of the air and on to the floor. Students whose cushions these belonged to couldn't see whose the cushion doing the knocking belonged to as it would safely be on the front desk before they could turn to see who was controlling it but most suspected that Vivian, given his reputation, was the culprit. Vivekka, however, didn't want to be the reason for the deduction of any more Gryffindor points and was well behaved as she placed all of her cushions neatly at the front of the room.

"This is fun," said Vivian quietly chuckling.

"Yeah, of course you're having fun. I wouldn't wanna be any of the guys in front because I'd be annoyed," said Vivekka rather harshly.

"Oh okay. You're right. Sorry."

"You shouldn't be apologising to me. The first one was funny though. Just not the rest."

"Well done class," squeaked Professor Flitwick loudly once all of the cushions were at the front of the class as the class became silent.

"Now, what we're going to do now is..."

"I wonder what Jay Bear's up to," Vivekka whispered in a bored voice.

"He's probably in school suffering just like us," Vivian replied.

"I'm not suffering," Vivekka truthfully revealed. "I like it here. He'd better reply to my letter soon," she said staring out of the window at the bright, blue sky.

At that very moment Arun was sitting in a History of Magic lesson next to his classmates, Fred Weasley and Alan Scrimegour, a tall dark haired boy from Ravenclaw, where the clock in the room seemed to be ticking very slowly. Professor Binns, with his long and dragging dull voice, was lecturing the class about giant wars. Arun who had his head on his folded arms on the table, turned to face Alan.

"This is so long," he whispered.

"I know right? Binns is the worst teacher ever. I read up on this stuff in the textbook because it sounded kinda cool and I found it interesting," said Alan quiety.

"Oh my god, you actually do reading before class? You nerd, Al!" claimed Fred.

"Hey, it was giant wars okay! They kill each other and stuff," he said in his defence.

"Now you mention it, I might read up on that you know when I get the time," Arun admitted.

"You're both nerds," concluded Fred.

"Dude, I totally forgot to tell you," started Alan. "Stephanie Delacour-Weasley looked dreadful this morning. What's happened? Have they-"

"Yup. They broke up last night," revealed Arun.

"Is it serious?"

"Seems like it."

"That figures. The older guys were so jealous when they were going out. They were all queuing up to give her a shoulder to lean on."

"Idiots," Fred said laughing to himself mutedly. "I bet that prefect was there to disappoint them."

"Rebecca Davies? Yeah she's her best mate isn't she? What d'ya expect?" asked Alan rhetorically.

"I bet you're over the moon," said Arun.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Arun replied nervously.

"Oh come off it dude. I've seen the broken-hearted look on your face every time you don't sit next to her at meal times."

"Wha-...Well...That's nothing...I err..."

"Calm down dude," whispered Arun chuckling silently. "We can keep a secret. Besides she's single now anyway."

Alan didn't say anything but had a hopeful expression on his face as he was lost within his thoughts.

Two floors below them on the ground floor in classroom eleven, the tall, strong, bold-looking centaur, Professor Firenze was teaching Divination to the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff fifth years. The task he set was to predict future events by reading the signs in their previous night's dreams in pairs. Winthya was looking up signs in her Divination text book as her friend, Amelia Creevey, was trying to remember her dream last night.

"So you said you were on a beach," started Winthya. "Hmmmm. I don't think 'beach' is in here, Amy. Was it a sandy beach or a rocky beach?" she asked Amelia.

"Sandy, of course. The sun was radiant. I was just lying there on the warm sand in the beautiful heat. It was total relaxation and..."

"Yeah, yeah, okay I get it now," Winthya interrupted. "Hmmm...so sand...well because you were on a sandy beach I guess it means, according to the book, that you'll have time for peace. And because the Sun was out, that means you'll have a bright future. And you said it was hot; It says here that heat means that you'll have a tough time but you also said you enjoyed it."

She paused and thought for a few seconds.

"So you're gonna have a tough time while having a bright future and you'll eventually hit a time of peace which you'll enjoy," Winthya concluded.

"Very good, Winthya," said a deep voice from behind her that made her jump.

She turned to see Professor Firenze smiling down at her.

"Ten points to Gryffindor I think," he added before trotting to the next table.

"Oh my god!" squealed Winthya in a high pitched voice.

"I know, right? He's so hard to please. And he gave you ten points!" said Amy smiling while feeling happy for her friend.

"He's so handsome," Winthya muttered dreamily.

Amy's smile slowly faded as she raised her right eyebrow.

"He's a horse, Winthya."

"A centaur!" Winthya corrected her angrily.

"Alright centaur; But he still has four legs!"

"Four toned and muscular legs!"

The debate about Professor Firenze being attractive between the two continued for what seemed like hours.

"I'm hungry. I can't wait for lunch," complained Mathavan as he was attempting to transfigure the small goblet of water in front of him into a dove without saying any incantations out loud.

"Having been in the same class as you for six years now I have to say that I'm not at all surprised at you saying that just thirty minutes after finishing your breakfast," said Lily after successfully producing her third dove silently which flew up and landed to sit next to her other two doves on the edge of her table.

"I didn't eat that much at breakfast, okay. I was nervous about the meeting with Professor Weasley."

"Is a plateful of toast, eggs, bacon and sausages still not enough?" asked Manoj while succeeding to transform his goblet into a dove.

"Nope," Mathavan said proudly as he was still struggling to produce a dove.

"Look. Professor Weasley said that non-verbal spells work by clearing your mind. There's no point just saying the spell in your head. If you're hungry and are complaining about it then you're not clearing your mind, are you" asked Lily sternly.

"That," started Manoj looking at his second goblet. "...is a fair point."

Romesh and Kiri who were on the table next to them were screaming with laughter at Lily's outburst like a pair of cackling hyenas.

"You're right Lily," admitted Mathavan ignoring the jeers from the Slytherins.

"He's gonna blow," said Manoj as Mathavan closed his eyes tightly with his eyebrows contracted and his nose scrunched up. Romesh and Kiri's laughs grew wilder.

"Shut up, you losers," said Natalie McNair, a girl from Slytherin with dark hair tied in a bun, who was sharing a table with them.

Romesh and Kiri both fell silent at once and both looked dumbstruck. Slowly but surely, Mathavan's goblet sprouted beautiful wings and a head led by a short beak. The transfiguration from his goblet to a dove was complete.

"You see. Well done. You can do anything that you set your mind to," said Lily wisely.

"Students I now requite your undivided attention. For homework I want you to practise the non-verbal spells and I want you to read chapters five, six and nine from the textbook," ordered Professor Weasley.

A few groans were heard from around the classroom.

"I don't know what you're moaning about. I'm sure you don't need reminding that you're all N.E.W.T Level students now. That means double the workload! Now be gone! And enjoy the rest of your first day back."


	10. Chapter 10: A Change of Heart

CHAPTER 10: A CHANGE OF HEART

Thiviya's head lowered a little as she was silently asleep with her head resting on her shoulder.

"There'll be no homework for today but don't expect me to be so easy on you in the future," warned Professor Binns in his usual boring, droning voice as most of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first-years were struggling to stay awake. Rathika's eyes were wide open and looked as though she could take a few hours more of History of Magic. Priya was doing her best to remain squinting as she had been doing for the past half an hour while Thiviya's head lowered even more. After eventually packing up all of his belongings, Professor Binns said the two words that the class were so longing to hear.

"Class dismissed."

The words were like an alarm as Thiviya raised her head at once, opened her eyes with much effort and lazily slid her books into her bag with one arm.

"Did you have a nice nap sleepy head?" asked Rathika as she bent over close to Thiviya's ear to ensure she knew that the question was directed to her.

"It was one of the best naps I've ever had," she answered stretching her arms out wide.

"How did you not get tired in that lesson?" Priya asked Rathika.

"I just found what he was saying really interesting. The four founders of Hogwarts school, the fight between Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin; It was all very exciting," explained Rathika. "For me anyway."

As the three of them walked towards the door they heard shouting from outside which got louder the closer they got to the door. They looked at each other and poked their heads around the door to see a group of older Slytherins arguing amongst themselves.

"So you would be friends with them?" they heard Clement Yaxley asking wildly.

"Well do you have a good reason for why we shouldn't be friends with the muggles?" asked Kiri.

"Listen to what you're saying, you fool! They're mudbloods! They're dirt compared to us!" shouted Yaxley.

Thiviya clasped her hand to her mouth.

"Well that's not a nice thing to say," whispered Priya.

Romesh stepped forward.

"Look Clement," he said.

Obviously this isn't a matter we can just let run under the bridge. But we have different views on it. Let's just go our separate ways and let it be over with. No harm done."

"Are you stupid?" spat Yaxley. "You're in the house of Salazar Slytherin: The wizard who wanted a mudblood-free school!"

"And what happened to him?" asked Romesh loudly. "He was forced out by the other three because it was unreasonable prejudice."

Clement stared at Romesh with intent until a smirk stretched across his face.

"We'll go our separate ways for now. You'll get what's coming to you though...soon enough."

And with that Clement Yaxley and his friends walked away leaving Romesh, Kiri and Natalie Macnair looking livid.

"Come on guys. Let's head to the library. We've got lots of work to do," said Natalie.

The other two agreed and followed. As they approached the History of Magic classroom, Rathika, Priya and Thiviya simultaneously fought their way to the back of the classroom so that they could avoid being seen. But Thiviya tripped over a chair that wasn't tucked in which happened to be the one she sitting on and fell on all fours.

"Ow," she said belatedly, rubbing her knees.

The three Slytherins saw the whole thing. Romesh and Kiri looked as if they were about to burst out laughing until they saw the cautious look on Natalie's face. She entered the room and held out her hand as an offer to help Thiviya back up on her feet with a smile on her face.

"Does it hurt badly?" she asked.

"A little," Thiviya replied taking Natalie's hand as she was pulled to her feet. "Thank you," she added.

"Here," said Natalie and she touched both of Thiviya's knees with her wand. "How does that feel?"

"Much better. Thanks!"

"Err...Nat?...Library?" asked Romesh.

"Yeah okay. See you girls around," she said before leaving the room to follow Kiri and Romesh.

"Slytherins? Being kind?" asked Winthya with disbelief as they were all sitting around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room. "Hmmm..."

"Are you sure it was Romesh, Kiri and Natalie?" asked Manoj.

"I don't know about Natalie but Romesh and Kiri were definitely with her because I saw what they looked like when you guys were talking about them at dinner last night," Priya explained.

"Hmmmmm...," said Winthya once more, deep in thought.

"I guess there's a first for everything," said Arun.

"Not really. I'm never going to go to the moon," Vivekka pointed out.

"You never know," contradicted Vivian. "NASA might recruit you."

"Wasn't NASA disbanded?" asked Mathavan curiously.

"No they're still around," informed Manoj.

"Back to the point!" Lily interrupted rather loudly over all the bickering. "So Romesh and Kiri had a fight with the other Slytherins?" she asked the girls.

"Well not a fight, but they argued," said Rathika.

"Romesh said Yaxley was taking an unfair view about muggleborns," explained Thiviya.  
>"But Yaxley's been the same since day one and Kiri and Romesh used to back him up," Manoj pointed out confusedly.<p>

"I wonder what's changed," said Lily.

"To be honest, I think we've got more pressing matters to worry about. We've got like a month's load of homework in for next week!" complained Mathavan.

"That's a fair point," Manoj agreed.

"I almost forgot," said Lily.

"That's a first," said Manoj.

Lily ignored this.

"Wanna go to the Library?" she asked her two classmates.

Mathavan and Manoj agreed and followed her out of the common room.

Winthya was reminded of the relatively large amount of homework she had been set too but she didn't want to be the only fifth-year going to the library. At that precise moment Hugo Weasley, one of Lily's cousins in Winthya's class, walked past the fireplace where she and her friends were gathered around and Amy Creevey had just came out of the bathroom.

"Hugo! Amy! Do you wanna come to the library with me and get some homework done?" asked Winthya.

"Yeah. Sure. It'll take a lot of pressure off of me come tomorrow," Amy replied.

"Just a sec," Hugo called back as he continued walking. "I'm just going to write my down for the Quidditch trials and then I'll join you," he added.

"Nerds," Vivekka said as her older sister got up to leave.

"In two years time, you'll be eating your words," warned Winthya.

"Yeah I probably will be. But for now: Nerd."

Winthya acted as if she didn't hear her sister's retort.

"I'll see you guys at dinner!" she exclaimed before leaving with Hugo and Amy.

"Hey me, Alan and Fred found this really cool place on the seventh floor," Arun started. "Do you guys want to check it out?"

"What is it?" asked Manega.

"I don't know. We were just walking down the corridor at lunch and I wished that there was a game room and suddenly a massive door appeared in the wall right next to me! We went in and it was amazing. You have to check it out!"

"Sounds like fun!" said Vithiyaa.

"Let's go!" Thiviya shouted.

So Arun, Vivekka, Vivian, Vithiyaa, Manega, Priya, Thiviya and Rathika went off wandering along the corridor of the seventh floor.

"So how far down is this room?" asked Vivian.

"I can't remember exactly where the room was," admitted Arun. "I think it was somewhere here."

A purring sound could now be heard from behind them.

They turned around to see a scrawny and dusty-coloured cat.

"It's Mrs Norris," said Manega. "And..."

Rapid footsteps increasing in sound could be heard from around the corner and surely enough, Mr Filch, the caretaker appeared and stared at the group of students huddled before him with sour excitement.

"Well, well, well, Mrs Norris," he said satisfactorily as his cat wrapped herself around his ankles. "What do we have here then? It looks like a group of troublemakers to me."

"We were just on our way...," started Arun when he remembered that there was no easy access to the library from the corridor they were in.

"To see Professor Weasley," said Vivian. "We wanted to give her our names for the Quidditch trials" he added quickly.

"All of you?" asked Mr Filch suspiciously.

They all nodded their heads faking innocence.

"Well don't let me keep you waiting. You'd better be off."

They didn't need asking twice. They hurried down the corridor and were out of Filch's sight within seconds.

"Nice one Vivian. That was quick thinking," said Manega.

"He can be so nosey that it's annoying," said Vivekka.

"So what now?" asked Vithiyaa.

"I'm a total hypocrite in saying this but me and Vivee might as well do this essay Cresswell set us," said Vivekka.

"But that's in for two weeks!" squealed Vivian who, by the desperate tone in his voice, had no intention of starting the essay any time soon.

"Yes and the sooner we finish it, the better!" Vivekka replied harshly.

"But it's only the first day of school!" whined Vivian.

"Look, it's not my fault we ended up having an essay to do for homework on our first day. Do you want your homework to pile up and then get stressed out doing it all at once?"

Vivian tried to think of a way out but could do nothing but admit defeat.

"Oh alright. But we do it in the common room," he commanded forcefully.

"Fine by me," said Vivekka as the two fifth years led the group back up to the common room.

"Tough crowd," Arun whispered to the others.

"I heard that!" said Vivekka crossly. "You're in the year above! Surely you've got work to do."

"Yeah. More than you know," Arun admitted. "I might look for Fred and get him to start on it together," he said casually as he stepped through the portrait leading into the Gryffindor common room.

In the library it was Manoj and Lily coming up with what to write for the assignments they were set whereas Mathavan was just jotting down whatever they were saying. On the table next to them however, Winthya seemed to be on top of things as she couldn't stop writing as Amy and Hugo kept on peering at her parchment. In the Gryffindor common room, Vivekka and Vivian were, to Rathika's surprise, working well together to gather information from text books to put in their essay. Arun and Fred were too helping each other out to complete Professor Weasley's homework while Rathika, Thiviya, Priya, Vithiyaa and Manega were playing Sticks around the on the sofas around the Gryffindor fireplace.

"I've never had such a stressful first day at school in my life," said Manoj while cutting his slice of grilled steak at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. He wondered whether the steak would leave enough space in his stomach for an ice cream sundae or two for dessert having seen Romesh and Kiri each having a sundae each on the Slytherin table.

"Tell me about it," said Vivekka. "Longest day ever. And you tried hard for once!" she exclaimed excitedly at Vivian.

"Yeah," he replied. "It's better to start working sooner rather than later. Who won at sticks?"

"Manega did," answered Vithiyaa.

"It took so long because Rathika and Manega sent broken sticks flying everywhere," said Priya.

"So that's what all the crunching noises were," said Vivekka. "That was so annoying!"

"Sorry," Rathika and Manega said together.

"Never mind. We got our homework done, didn't we?" Vivekka asked rhetorically thinking about the bright side.

"Manoj, we better eat quick. We've got," said Lily before getting cut off.

"Yeah I know. Prefect duty. I'm on top of things now," he said proudly.

"Do you know where the fifth year prefects will be stationed?" asked Winthya.

"No idea. I need to double check our duties too. We'll speak to Professor McGonagall after dinner."

Mathavan was the last to finish his dinner as he got up simultaneously with the others while still chewing on a mouthful of boiled parsnips.

"You're so fat," said Arun.

"Fank you," Mathavan managed to respond with his mouth full.

"Ewwww," Winthya said annoyed avoiding looking at his face. "That's our cue to leave. See you tonight," she added.

Lily, Manoj and Winthya went off to do prefect duty while the others went to hang around in the Gryffindor common room.

Manoj was crouched down leaning against a wall in the Entrance Hall adding a few sentences to his Defence Against The Dark Arts essay with his parchment leaning on his lap. He was feeling chilly when a sudden familiar warmth entered the hall. He looked up and jumped at the sight of a shining silver unicorn standing brightly in front of him. The unicorn opened here mouth and Lily's voice spoke:

"Manoj, I just spoke to Professor Weasley and she said we could finish our duty early tonight. Meet me on the second floor."

The mouth of Lily's patronus closed and disappeared soundlessly into thin air leaving Manoj feeling cold again. He put his incomplete homework nearly away in his bag and set off for the second floor. He had barely taken two steps when he head a familiar voice from behind him which he dreaded to hear.

"Manoj?"

He was startled to hear his name called out in a strained voice and turned to see Stephanie Delacour-Weasley standing in the centre of the Entrance Hall. Manoj cringed at the sight of her as he wasn't used to seeing her looking so miserable.

"Hey...Stephanie...," he said awkwardly. "Are you done with you're prefect duty?"

She appeared to have not heard him.

"I don't know what to do," said Stephanie.

Manoj knew where this was going.

"I hear ya Steph. When I don't know what to do I usually sleep," he said quickly.

She ignored this too.

"I've never felt so alone. I usually had..." Stephanie paused and Manoj was preparing to cringe at hearing his cousin's name. "...him with me."

Relief flowed through Manoj's body.

"But I hardly have any friends in Ravenclaw because they didn't like me being so close to the Gryffindors," she added.

"Hang on. I heard guys were queuing up to comfort you."

"What? Who told you that?"

Manoj hesitated. He didn't want her to think her brother was spreading rumours about her.

"A little bird told me," he revealed.

"A few guys came on a little strongly this morning and that isn't what I need right now. I need..."

She paused again and tears filled her eyes. "Did he put on an act all that time? Was it all fake?"

She seemed to be asking herself more than anything but her questions seemed to hit a nerve in Manoj.

"Oh come on Stephanie," he said loudly especially compared to her quiet voice.

"Just because it didn't work out, it doesn't mean that Mathavan was being fake."

She flinched at her ex-boyfriend's name.

"Tell me," he said forcefully. "How many disagreements did you two have over the last year or so?"

"Loads." Stephanie looked surprised at her answer coming out as a mere whisper.

"And how many of those disagreements did you two find a solution that you both felt happy about?"

"None," she admitted guiltily.

"That's too many disagreements that weren't solved. You should've broken up with him ages ago. You can't just ignore that stuff and pretend things are fine. That's why you are distraught now."

Stephanie now was holding back her urge to burst out crying but couldn't prevent the streams of tears flowing down both of her cheeks. Hurried footsteps could now be heard coming down the wide marble staircase on the east wall.

"Oh Stephy!" cried Lily as she ran to hug her cousin. Stephanie accepted the hug and sobbed hard into Lily's shoulder.

Winthya appeared at the bottom of the staircase and went to stand next to Manoj. Peeves, the mischievous poltergeist, who was one of the ghosts who roamed the castles of Hogwarts school also entered the Entrance Hall through the east wall and giggled at what he was seeing.

"Young love," he said midway through chuckling. "It never lasts," he added before belting out with laughter.

"Oh shut up Peeves!" shouted Winthya as she hit a spell right on his forehead which resulted in him yelping as he clasped his head where he got hit and zoomed off through the same wall in which he came through and out of sight.

"That was a little uncalled for," whispered Manoj.

"He annoyed me all through my prefect duty and I couldn't attack him because Flitwick kept on walking between his classroom and his office. I was just happy to take my chance," Winthya explained quietly.

"Well taken," said Manoj.

"There, there Stephy. What did Manoj say to you?" Lily asked throwing him an unpleasant look over her shoulder.

"Oh no," Stephanie managed to get out through the sobs which were slowing and lowering in volume now. "He was just helping me. I'm overacting. Don't worry about me. I just need time. That's all."

Stephanie released Lily.

"Stephy, one day you will be happy with a guy. Time will bring him to you. But for now enjoy the position you're at," Lily advised wisely.

"Yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks guys. See you later," she said after hugging each of them as she walked up the staircase taking her to the Ravenclaw Tower.

The other three started to stroll up the stairs that Lily and Winthya came down from.

"What happened to meeting on the second floor?" Manoj asked.

"I got Lily's message but heard voices from below so I met up with Lily and came down here to see what the problem was," said Winthya.

"Besides I could feel you're anxiety. But I have to say you handled things pretty well," Lily said approvingly.

"What? But I made her cry?"

"She didn't cry because of you. She cried because she wanted to let what she was feeling inside out. That's exactly what she needed. Well done."

"Oh right. Thanks," he responded pleased with himself from receiving rare compliments from Lily.

Winthya and Lily arrived at their bedroom to find Vithiyaa, Priya and Hayley fast asleep and went to bed themselves. Manoj returned to his dormitory to find Arun, Vivian and Mathavan in a triangle around the bedroom all in their pyjamas positioned in a squat position.

"I'm not even going to ask," said Manoj.

Thiviya, Vivekka, Rathika and Manega stayed up playing sticks in their dormitory. They eventually went to sleep at midnight which was early for their standards while one bed in their room remained unoccupied throughout the night.


	11. Chapter 11: The Prophet's Breaking News

THE PROPHET'S BREAKING NEWS

"By the way Manoj," started Vivian as he wiped his face with his towel having just brushed his teeth while his roommates were already changing . "When you came in last night, Mathavan and Arun were showing me some Quidditch stretches. That was all."

"Yeah I know. I've done them loads of times. Just not in our dormitory," Manoj replied laughing.

"Yeah I don't know why these two made me do it," said Vivian.

"Hey! You wanted to know how to get better at Quidditch!" retorted Mathavan.

"Yeah!" agreed Arun. "We explained it to you and you didn't get it so we showed it to you and you joined in."

"It doesn't take two to show a demonstration," Manoj pointed out.

"I felt left out, okay!" Mathavan yelled embarrassingly in his defence.

"She can't have moved to a different room," said Rathika. "Her clothes are still in her drawers. And her suitcase is still here."

"Vivekka are you sure you didn't knock her out and bury her alive in Hagrid's garden next to that gigantic spider he keeps crying about?"

"Ewww Maneha no!" cried Vivekka. "I haven't seen her since last night."

"Maybe we should tell Professor Weasley that Rawfiah's missing" Thiviya suggested.

"We don't know that she's missing for sure," Vivekka contradicted her sister. "She might've come in after we slept and left before we woke up."

"Well I still think Professor Weasley should know just in case she didn't turn up over night," said Maneha.

"Yeah, like Rawfiah would've don't the same for us," Rathika said sarcastically.

"Hmmm," contemplated Vivekka. "Let's leave now so we can tell Professor Weasley."

"Good idea," Thiviya agreed as she pulled her school bag over her shoulder.

"Could it be? Lily Potter still doing her hair when we should be on our way to the Great Hall?" Winthya mocked joyfully.

"It's just a one-off doll so enjoy it while you can," Lily replied.

Winthya chuckled. "You know, I think I will."

Just as the room fell silent Vithiyaa's stomach rumbled.

"Hungry?" Winthya asked as they heard someone tapping their door from the outside.

"Just a bit" replied Vithiyaa.

"Come on! Let's go!" Vivekka called out. "Where are Priya and Hayley?"

"Flying lessons with Hooch," replied Lily after tying her hair into a bun.

"Oh no!" cried Rathika.

"Crap!" shouted Thiviya and they both raced down the stairs and sprinted out of sight.

"Somebody's in trouble," sang Maneha.

"Ah they'll be fine. I was late to my flying class and Madam Hooch didn't mind," said Winthya. "But maybe that's because she was impressed with my flying."

"Can we go now?" asked Vithiyaa as Lily had just joined them at the doorway.

"Yeah let's head out," said Manega.

"It's about time. What took you so long?" asked Manoj. "Poor Mathavan's been dying here. Or at least his stomach has."

And surely enough, Mathavan had given the girls a look of utmost dislike through squinted eyelids.

"Sorry Momo!" yelled Vivekka as she skipped down the stairs and pulled Mathavan up from his couch by the arm.

"What's new?" asked Vithiyaa quietly laughing but apparently wasn't quiet enough as Mathavan was now giving her a dramatically evil gaze.

"it was all Lily's fault," joked Winthya.

"Really?" asked Manoj.

"Everyone oversleeps at least once in a lifetime okay," Lily defensively responded.

"Yes but this is Lily Potter we're talking about," replied Winthya.

They made fun of Lily all the way to the Great Hall. The boys were digging in to their breakfast before the girls joined them having spoken to Professor Weasley.

"What's urgent enough for you to risk missing breakfast and speak to Professor Weasley first thing in the morning?" asked Arun.

"Well you know Rawfiah? The head girl?" Winthya began and she explained Rawfiah's mysterious disappearance.

"And Professor Weasley told us that this was all news to her and that we should keep it quiet to avoid students asking awkward questions," Vithiyaa added.

"Wow," said Vivian after emptying his cup of orange juice. "Serious stuff."

"She could've gone home," said Mathavan.

"But how? The Hogwarts Express left for London just after we got here," said Manega.

"The secret passageways," he suggested. "And then she could've apparated from – OH YEAH!"

"Shhh! You're so loud!" whispered Winthya violently.

"Sorry."

Manoj and Lily's faces had lit up.

"We're doing out apparition tests this year!"

"We'll be able to travel wherever we want in seconds," Manoj told Arun gloatingly.

"Apart from in and out of Hogwarts," Manega added.

"And if you pass," said Arun.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Manoj asked him.

"Nothing. Your just need to pass before you go wherever you want," replied Arun.

"Apart from in and out of Hogwarts," Manega repeated.

Despite Arun's innocent expression Manoj was gazing at him suspiciously.

"So you reckon she disapparated out of Hogsmeade? Hmmm..." Vivekka said before thinking to herself.

"Why are you worrying about her anyway?" asked Vivian. "She was rude to you the other night. She can probably take care of herself anyway; she's head girl!"

That's beside the point," replied Vivekka. "If she isn't at home, she's a student just like us, albeit in her final year and head girl, our there on her own. I just hope she's okay."

"Amen sister," said Winthya.

"But you're not Christian," said Vivian.

At that moment, great sounds of fluttering filled the Great Hall as owls flew in to deliver mail to the occupants of Hogwarts. A small snowy owl with shiny beady yellow eyes swooped down to land next to Manega.

"Thanks Bakram," she said stroking the own and pouring milk into a bowl for Bakram to drink out of as he dropped the newspaper it was holding in front of Manega before stooping down to sip the bowl of milk.

"Oh my gosh!" Lily whispered loudly in surprise as she caught sight of the picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet. "That's my dad!"

"What?!" asked Manoj.

He looked at the front page and saw that headline that read: POTTER AND WEASLEY RESCUE INJURED MUGGLES FROM DEMENTOR ATTACK. The picture that took up half of the page was of two men, one with untidy dark hair that barely hid the scar on his forehead and the other had bright ginger hair and greatly resembled Lily's cousin, Hugo Weasley.

Manega began to read the article.

"Yesterday afternoon, the muggle city of London came under attack by two dementors. Five muggles were injured in the arrack and were bound to have suffered the Dementor's Kiss had aurors Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, both 43, not made their timely arrival. Being two of the most skilled aurors, they easily disposed of the former guards of Azkaban prison. The reason for the appearance, let alone the existence, of these dementors is unknown, however the worried Minister of magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, is optimistic that the reason of the attack will be clear soon enough and suspects the former dark lord behind the attack.

"Our best people are on the case. It is possible that followers of Lord V******** are still at large and may be linked to the attack. We're rounding up former death eaters currently in Azkaban for questioning right minute. We're all out to prevent any further attacks. If anyone knows anything or finds anything suspicious it is vital that they inform us immediately. In the meantime I advise everyone to be cautios and to stay at home unless it's absolutely urgent."

The group fell silent and clinking of cutlery and chatting from around the room could be heard.

"Fricking serious stuff," Vivian added.

"I'm going to speak to Professor Weasley quickly. I'll meet you guys in Defence," Lily told Manoj and Mathavan.

"I thought dementors were extinct," said Vivian.

"Didn't we all," Arun pointed out.

"We better get off to our lessons. We'll talk about this later," said Winthya.

"In threes I want you to practise non-verbal disarming. Remember empty your mind and concentrate. Off you go," ordered Professor Cresswell as he limped off to his office. Mathavan let Manoj attempt to jinx him first. Manoj held his wand out in front of him and within seconds a jet of red light shot out of it and hit Mathavan's right arm. Mathavan's wand flew up and Manoj caught it in mid-air.

"Nice one," said Mathavan impressed as the classroom door opened. They turned to see Lily walking towards them.

"Hey. Where's Professor Cresswell?" she asked as she placed her bag on their table ready to unpack her things.

"It's a practical lesson so don't unpack. And he just went to his office," Manoj replied.

"Oh okay. What are we doing today?"

"Non-verbal disarming. What did Professor Weasley say?" asked Manoj lowering his voice. Lily looked around to make sure that nobody was eavesdropping.

"She said Dad and Uncle Ron are okay. Mum's sending me a letter today saying pretty much the same thing. But neither Professor Weasley nor Dad knows any more about the attack than the Daily Prophet."

"As long as they're fine that's good," said Mathavan.

"Yes but I'm concerned about how two dark creatures who are supposed to be extinct go as far as they did in the muggle world."

"Look I'm worried about it too Lily, but it's like Vivekka said. We're just students. You're dad got rid of the lord voldemort and that proves that he can deal with any thing that comes up now in his sleep. What we've got to worry about now is practising non-verbal spells," Manoj explained.

"You're right Manoj. Okay Mathavan ready?" Lily asked pointing her wand at him.

"Err..." Mathavan responded. He screwed his face up while preparing for Lily's attack. Professor Cresswell entered the room just in time to see Lily disarm Mathavan with a wave of her wand.

"Ah Miss Potter, you've arrived. Ten points to Gryffindor by the way."

"But she was late!" Clement Yaxley said loudly and knew he'd spoken out of turn at once as Professor Cresswell glared at him furiously.

"TWENTY POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN FOR STICKING YOUR NOSE IN A MATTER THAT IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN WHEN YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE PRACTISING! AND IF YOU'RE TALKING TO ME YOU'LL ADDRESS ME AS 'SIR'! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Manoj's and Mathavan's faces looked as if they were about to explode as they held back their urge to burst out laughing. They turned to look at Clement who looked as if he had tears filling his eyelids.

"Yes...sir." Clement's whisper was barely audible.

"WHAT WAS THAT? CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE ALL OF THE SUDDEN EH? I ASKED YOU IF YOU UNDERSTOOD!"

"I understand, sir," Clement whimpered hurriedly.

"Good," Professor Cresswell replied relatively softly and walked around the classroom to see how the class were doing.

"How's it going over there?" Lily asked the people on the table next to them who were quieter than usual and who never usually sat at the front.

"We're doing okay," replied Natalie Macnair.

"Yeah but Kiri's having a bit of trouble as always," added Romesh Axel.

"Hey! He's just jealous cos I made his wand hit his face when I disarmed him," Kiri protested.

"Are you stupid or something? That was a lucky shot."

"Yeah, right," Kiri said sarcastically. "Just like this one," and he shot his wand out.

"Protego!" cried Romesh and Kiri's spell rebounded on himself and his own wand smacked against his forehead.

"Ouch! That's cheating! What happened to non-verbal spells, eh Mesh?" yelled Kiri.

"Indeed Mr Axel. My first-years are about to learn Shield charms verbally. Are you a first-year?" asked Professor Cresswell.

"No sir. But he was taking the mickey, sir!" protested Romesh in his defence.

"Then by all means produce a shield charm non-verbally. Without speaking! It's the same process. Clear your mind and concentrate."

"I understand, sir."

"We heard what happened yesterday, the fight with Yaxley. It must not have been fun for you guys in the common room," sympathised Lily.

"Yeah, we didn't go to the common room," explained Natalie. "The argument was right outside Professor Weasley's office and she heard the whole thing. She told Slughorn and they let us sleep in this room on the seventh floor."

"Wow! It's great that they moved you away from trouble."

"Yeah but that's not the best part. They let us stay in the Room of Requirement. The previous user turned it into a gameroom."

"That would be my brother," Manoj pointed out.

"It's the best ting ever. It gives us separate rooms to sleep in, a bathroom, a study room, it gives us pretty much everything. You should visit," explained Natalie.

"Thanks! I've read about it. I'd love to come and see if your roommates don't mind," said Lily.

"Errrm...yeah...it's alright," replied Kiri.

"Your friends can come too," Romesh interjected. Mathavan remained silent pretending to look at the blackboard at the front of the class.

"Thanks man," said Manoj excitedly. "What do you say, Mathavan?"

"You can go if you want. I'm gonna stay up in the common room," answered Mathavan harshly.

"What? Why?"

"Thorns that hurt before will still hurt now. These punks chose the opposing side all those years ago. I tried to talk to them and they still ignored me. And now that they have nobody to turn to they ask us to hang around?" Mathavan muttered silently.

"Mate we made a mistake," said Kiri.

"We've made a lot of mistakes since arriving at Hogwarts," revealed Romesh.

"And one of em was ditching you for Yaxley's gang," admitted Kiri.

"We're sorry mate."

Mathavan continued to look at the ground a while longer and then turned to Kiri and Romesh.

"I'll come."

"Nice one mate," Manoj said patting him on the back.

"She said your dad and uncle are fine?" asked Winthya at the Gryffindor table eating lunch.

"Yup."

"So they didn't get hurt by the dementors?" asked Vivian.

"Well they're supposed to be okay so I guess not."

"How does Professor Weasley know that they're okay?" inquired Ratheha.

"I- I don't know," she stuttered a little wearily.

"But what about-" started Vivekka but she was cut off immediately.

"How about less of the questions guys?" Manoj interrupted. "Lily must be feeling pretty stressed right now. Let's cut her some slack, hmm?"

'Thanks' manoj heard Lily say to him telepathically. He looked up at her but her focus was on the piece of steak she was cutting.

"Sorry Lily," they all said apologetically. Lily took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"Don't worry about it guys. I know you all mean well. But when I definitely know what's going on I'll let you know."

After they had finished their lunch they all made their way to their respective lessons. Lily, Mathavan and Manoj headed for the third floor for Charms with Professor Flitwick. Again non-verbal spells were the focus again while they had to practise moving things silently. The Ravenclaws usually got on well with the Gryffindors but Flitwick's classroom was split in half, Ravenclaws at the front and Gryffindors at the back. The Ravenclaws hadn't appreciated Mathavan's break up with Stephanie however she didn't seem to be upset as she beamed positively at her Charms teacher.

"You know, if there was one person in this school who didn't know about the break-up, no matter who they are, I'd buy them lunch at hogsmeade," said Mathavan.

"Winnie the pooh, can you pass me thee jar of lacewing flies please?"

"I told you already I don't like the name, Hugo Boss!" Winthya retorted passing Hugo Weasley the green jar.

"As long as you know who the boss is in the group, it's all good," said Hugo coolly and looked over his shoulder to see Professor Slughorn on the other side of the room tending to Paulina Malfoy.

"Err, excuse me. What's that supposed to mean?" asked Amy Creevey.

"It just means that wherever I go you two lovely girls are always with me," he said boastfully.

"Whatever rocks your boat mate," Amy said chuckling.

"Yeah," agreed Winthya unimpressed. "Wasn't it you who followed us to the library yesterday?"

"I joined you because you couldn't stand to be without me. Admit it Winnie the pooh, you need me around."

"No way! And stop with that name! It's annoying."

"Alright keep your hair on women. I understand if you don't like being proven wrong."

"Urgh," Winthya muttered impatiently. "You're such a douchebag."

"Because I proved you wrong?" Hugo asked stubbornly.

"Because you don't know when to shut up you loser."

"He's not gonna stop until you deny it Bin Bin," whispered Amy as she stirred her potion.

"You still haven't denied it. That means you love having me around."

"Hugo I hate having you around. It's like a massive headache when you're here. Especially you're like this."

"Woah hold the phone. You're not even joking this time, are you?" he spoke every word louder than the previous word and attracted Professor Slughorn's attention.

"A little less chatting at the front please," he called out while still tending to Paulina.

"What's this really about?" Hugo whispered looking at Winthya seriously.

"I'm joking Hugo. Calm down but I didn't know you'd get this sentimental," Winthya explained chuckling.

"Wha-. Me? I-," stuttered Hugo as he was holding back the tears appearing in his eyes. He'd been upset about Winthya's prank and was relieved that it was nothing but a joke.

"That'll do Hugo, that'll do," said Amy patting him on the back. Winthya looked pretty pleased with herself and earned Gryffindor twenty points for making the stew of polyjuice potion that impressed Professor Slughorn the most.

"Dude, she's two years older than you," pointed out Fred Weasley in a whisper as Hagrid was demonstrating how to feed blast-ended skrewts.

"Now yer gotta do it slowly and carefully..." Hagrid started to explain.

"I know," said Alan Scrimegour.

"And you know you're gonna have to wait a bit before you tell her you like her," explained Arun. "Otherwise you're not gonna like what Hogwarts is gossiping about you for asking her out days after Mathavan dumped her."

"I know," said Fred understandingly.

"You're gonna have to stand out from the rest of them," advised Fred. "And I don't want to see you in a clown suit."

"I know. Dudes just let me think this one through on my own. I'll come up with something."

"You know the best way to get a girl to like you is to be yourself," said a girl from Gryffindor standing next to them who heard the whole conversation. Arun peered over his shoulder at her intriguingly.

"It's totally none of your business but, thanks Erika," said Alan kindly.

"I did it!" yelled Thiviya with excitement.

"That isn't yellow Thiviya. Professor Weasley said it had to be yellow," said Ratheha.

"Yeah," agreed Priya. "That's goldish-orange."

"But it looks close enough to yellow right?" asked Thiviya. Ratheha and Priya shrugged while Professor Weasley came to assess their work.

"Incomplete magic can leave traces Miss Bomberman," she said as she picked up Priya's bright yellow goblet. "Even if it's 1% off. Aguamenti." Water filled Priya's goblet which was initially clear but slowly turned misty. "For a first time effort it's definitely satisfactory but unless you want to drink pure water out of the colour of the cup you desire I suggest a bit of practising for homework, hmmm?" she said now gazing at Priya.

"Yes, Professor Weasley."

"Hmm, now for Miss Krypto," said Professor Weasley picking up Ratheha's yellow cup. "Good. Ten points to Gryffindor. Although I'd still do a bit of practising for homework just so you don't forget."

"Yes Professor Weasley."

"Hmmm..." Their Transfiguration teacher picked up Thiviya's golden-orange cup and pointed her wand into it.

"Aguamenti," she said as she filled Thiviya's cup with water. Thiviya clasped her hands to her face and yelled, "No Professor!" as Professor Weasley drank out of her cup.

"Hmmm...refreshing," said Professor Weasley. "I appreciate your concern Miss Vulpix but your cup was perfectly safe to drink from and would never contaminate any liquids in it. However the colour is a tad off as this isn't yellow," she said holding Thiviya's cup out and then placing it in front of it's owner.

"You'll notice," started Professor Weasley as she walked to the front of the class.

"You see. I can drink out of my cup," said Thiviya proudly.

"Yes but it still isn't yellow," Ratheha responded looking, if possible even more prouder.

Manega and Vithiyaa both were wearing pink, fluffy earmuffs in greenhouse seven and for very good reason. Professor Longbottom, their Herbology teacher warned them that a cry of a mandrake is fatal to humans that hear it. In each student's hand was a plant with eyes and a mouth, wailing on the top of their lungs. Manega turned to Vithiyaa. They had pale, mottled green skin and leaves were growing out of the top of its head.

"They're so ugly," Manega said loudly to Vithiyaa, who didn't take any notice of Manega which she found unsurprising as she barely heard herself. Vithiyaa continued with suppressing her mandrake into her pot with great difficulty as it wiggled it's legs vigorously but managed to complete Professor Longbottom's task before everyone else. Just before the class was dismisses Professor Longbottom said "Well done class, particularly Vithiyaa who was the quickest. Ten points to Gryffindor."

"Wow, those are the first points I earned for Gryffindor!" Vithiyaa squealed gleefully as her and Manega left the greenhouse for the castle hurriedly due to rather strong wind.

"Yeah, well done Vithiyaa! I don't think I like mandrakes very much. My one tried to bit my finger. I hope I have a friendlier mandrake next time," said Manega.

They had just entered the castle when a familiar voice called their names. Manega's sister, Ratheha, Thiviya and Priya were pacing down the corridor towards them.

"Guess what we've decided to do?" asked Ratheha.

"Ummm..."

"We're going to tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch team!" said Thiviya excitedly.

"But none of you have brooms," Maneha pointed out.

"We can use the school's brooms. Wanna come and tryout with us?" asked Priya.

"Yeah that sounds like fun!" replied Vithiyaa.

"Hell yeah!" yelled Menega.

As they had homework to do they went to the library so they could have an unstressful evening.

"Oi! What are you barging me for?" shouted Mathavan at a bulky 7th year Ravenclaw student as he grabbed on to Manoj's bag to maintain his balance.

"Don't let me get in your way. I'm just passing by," called back the boy from Ravenclaw as he turned to face Mathavan.

"That was uncalled for."

"And now you realise how much pain is cause by actions that are uncalled for."

Having flattened the creases on his bag and expected to hear the sound of jinxes flying at the broad-shouldered Ravenclaw student but to his surprise, he saw Mathavan walk passed him with a smirk on his face "Ha! Sissy!" shouted the ravenclaw student but his remark had no effect on Mathavan as Lily and Manoj followed him down the corridor. "So there really is a first for everything," said Manoj.

"Yes, i have to say I'm rather impressed that you didn't retaliate Mat," added Lily.

"He's an idiot. I probably looked like a fool to everyone who was watching but I'm not gonna get involved in any more petty duels."

"And his boulder sized arms definitely wasn't a factor to you backing down."

Lily shot a disapproving look at Manoj.

"No. It wasn't," said Mathavan strongly. There was a short pause as Manoj turned his gaze from Lily's disappointed expression to the enraged lines on Mathavan's face.

"I know mate. I didn't mean it. I tried to make him look like the fool but on second thought it's better not to get involved."

"Haha no worries dude."

"You know Randall had his eyes on Stephanie before you did, Mat. She doesn't want to see other guys so I expect that's why he's annoyed with you."

Mathavan laughed.

"Well Lily if that's the case then Randall's not going to be the last person to randomly barge me. This is going to be a fun year."

Manoj opened the door to the Room of Requirement.

"Kiri and Romesh aren't here yet." Mathavan then entered and Lily followed. After she closed the door they heard a heavy, rushed shuffling sound in the corner of the room.

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Mathavan.

"We're not alone."

"Who's there?" called Lily as she peered through each of the video games.

"Don't hurt me!"

"It's never our intention," replied Manoj reassuringly.

From behind a Mario Kart arcade video game appeared a dark haired boy in Gryffindor robes with gelled hair.

"Giri? What are you doing here?" asked Mathavan. "We haven't seen you in ages."

"I practically live in this room. I was on level 57 you know and you ruined it."

"Again, that was never our intention. You'll have to forgive us."

"I'm only kidding. So what brings you up here?"

"My brother stumbled across this room and told us about it."

"So more of you are coming? That's great news. I've been up here on my own out of lesson time for ages."

"Dude why didn't you just ask someone to come with you?" interjected Mathavan.

Giri hesitated.

"Don't worry," said Lily soothingly as Kiri, Romesh and Arun entered the Room of Requirement. "We'll hang around with you... only if that's okay with you though."

"I'd like that. Thanks."


End file.
